Everlasting Story
by monogatari ai
Summary: All they wanted to do was hopefully get a passing mark on a project. What happened next was quite...unexpected. It wasn't everyday, after all, that they got sucked into a computer, into a completely new world with things they could only dream about...
1. Glowing computers are NOT normal!

Ah yes...ANOTHER story! Actually, this was posted before, but i took it down 'cause I thought it needed a rewrite and perhaps some plot changes and here it is! Actually, a lot of it has changed in this story so if you've read it before, read it AGAIN! So yeah...enjoy the first chapter

* * *

A pen dropped onto the desk as one of the many students unsuccessfully suppressed a loud yawn in boredom, deserting the note writing to cover her yawn. Like all normal students, this one was sure she was going to be bored to death soon if the bell ending the class did not ring, but of course, bells – especially school bells – do not serve the whim of every student or else, class would be ended in less than a second, so therefore, this particular student, and all other students in the school, had to bear with the boredom of academics for another half hour.

Soon, however, the shrill ringing of the bell reached the ears of the half-dead students and with a vigor none showed in class, they quickly leapt out of their seats and into the hallways, the elder students successfully knocking over quite a few midget ninth graders along the way. This, however, was not _completely_ their fault; they could not help it if three-quarters of the population of ninth graders seemed to get shorter and shorter every year while they, when they were in that grade, were much taller than a mere 4'. It was also not their fault that it had now become a game among some to see who was the most successful in knocking over midgets. If they were knocked to the ground, a point was awarded. If they were flung into the nearest wall, two points. If they were flung through a door…well, that never happened yet, but rest assured, many points would have been awarded for that.

Besides the midgets, who were such easy targets, there were also the tenth graders, who had quite a lot of annoying people in their midst, so they were mostly ignored and glared at by the elder students who seemed to have a shred of sanity – or maybe it was insanity? – left.

Then, there were eleventh graders, who were probably the ones who started the tradition of knocking the midgets down and it was a life goal of many to be the one to send a midget flying through that door, perhaps maybe causing the door to slam into the vice principal's face.

However…

Since at least half of the eleventh graders are preps, they do not matter and they will never matter, until one of them sees reason and sets fire to themselves and run off a cliff screaming. But alas, chances are that if the preps do indeed set themselves on fire, they would get lost and accidentally get trampled by a herd of cows instead.

"…and maybe we could get some of those things that light up all nice 'n stuff…" a deeply tanned boy was saying.

"…a lighter?" a girl with red hair raised an eyebrow, ice blue eyes glittering at the thought of fire, "But tell me, Kevin, is there a reason why you're telling me about something _I already have in my pocket_?"

"Well…"

He was saved from answering by a rather repulsive girl – if one could even call her that – walking by; sickly pale skin which make the blotches of red stand out, bushy, short and dull brown hair, it was to no one's surprise that a girl with black hair and red eyes starting inching away from the girl – creature.

Kristen grinned, "Quite disgusting, huh?"

Seiriko nodded slowly, "I'm amazed I can still see" she muttered.

Kevin looked between the two of them, "What? What're you talking about?"

Kevin, despite all pretences and claims, was also incredibly naïve.

"You, of course" said a voice from behind the three of them, belonging to a girl with chestnut curls and hazel eyes, "You disgust me"

It seemed that all disgusting things were making it a mission to walk by the group today, because not even a moment later, _It_ walked by. _It_ is so horrible that its real name must not be revealed. _It _causes fear, but mostly disgust, into the hearts of all the students and _It_ seems to be always, everywhere. It started with anthropology class and now…

It grinned, "Long time no see"

Throughout the school, there were suddenly screams as two girls, the ones who had to put up with It in class, ran down the halls, screaming about fat blobs and murder by fat suffocation.

* * *

Hours later, and after being given a slight sedative by a teacher who just _happened_ to have sedatives in her purse, the two screaming girls found themselves in Kristen's home, working on an Anthropology project. Of course, neither girl realized that after all their screaming fits from seeing It, the Anthropology teacher had learnt long ago to bring a large box of powerful sedatives just in case, _just in case_, It decided to come to class.

"I'm bored" Kristen declared.

Seiriko answered with a yawn, staring blearily at the textbook. Finally, she stopped trying to make sense of the words and slammed the book shut.

"I'll that that as a 'yes, Kristen, I'm bored too'" Kristen said aloud. Struck with a sudden inspiration and wondering why she had not thought about it before, she rummaged through a stack of CD cases before pulling out a rather beaten one, "Let's watch some anime!"

"What do you have?" Seiriko's eyes immediately lit up, which looked somewhat scary considering her eyes were a dark red color, but did Seiriko care? No. She was too interested in the mention of anime.

"Naruto…Gaara!" Kristen said immediately and without waiting for an answer, she popped the disc into the computer, waiting for it to load. Suddenly, an image flashed across the scream and the computer seemed to glow.

"Uh…is that _supposed_ to happen?" Seiriko asked.

Brightly glowing words were moving across the screen.

_Fushigi Yuugi: The Mysterious Play_

_The Continuation_

_Everlasting Story_

Blue eyes and red eyes glanced at each other for a moment before the computer started to glow even brighter. Before either girl could even attempt to run away, or even scream, the glow enveloped them and a second and a final bright flash later, the girls and the glow were gone, as if they were never there.

* * *

Miaka was stuffing her face again. It was nothing new; she stuffed her face every minute of every day. Sometimes, even when Taka was sleeping, he could hear the familiar chewing sounds indicating that his wife had brought food to bed with her. It was extremely unattractive, especially since she was getting fatter and fatter. Since she was getting middle-aged now, she now had wrinkles and a slower metabolism.

Taka was distracted from thoughts of his wife when a glint caught his eye. Without thinking – not that he ever did in the first place – he dove for the coin, and jumping up like he had won a million dollars when he saw that he had gotten the much desired coin. A hundred yen.

A kid that was passing by, spotted him and tugged on his mother's sleeve, "'kaa-san…why is that man doing that?" he pointed. Taka put on a rather fake smile.

"Because he has problems honey" the mother answered and Taka dropped the smile for a glare. It was a rather pathetic glare, but a glare all the same.

The woman and her son walked away very quickly from the glowering Taka, who turned back to his wife and asked if she was done eating yet. After Miaka was satisfied (for now), they left to pester Yui at her work. After the incident with the Gods and whatnot, Yui had graduated from University to become a very high ranked employee in the electronic goods industry, which was the complete opposite of Miaka of course. Miaka worked in a school cafeteria, although Yui had mentioned more than once that she was surprised that Miaka had not eaten most of the children's lunch yet and not surprisingly, every time she said it, Miaka turned a bright pink.

Yui sighed when the secretary in the lobby announced that Miaka and Taka were here.

Oh goody. Just what she needed today; more trouble. Whenever Taka and Miaka were here, they were constantly causing trouble. Just as she was about to decide which sickness she could fake today, a bright light surrounded her. She turned and through the glass window, saw a familiar light come from the sky.

_Oh shit…_she thought as the light covered her.

Miaka and Taka entered the office and Miaka gaped at the light stupidly. Then she remembered; it was like the Gods' light! She remembered Konan, and all the other countries and all it's delicious foods; the meat, the fruit, the desert. She could picture dishes of delicious fish, beef, pork, buns…

Without thinking then, she ran straight into the light, followed by Taka, who had a completely different train of thought than she did. In fact, he had not even acknowledged the light; he had seen something on Yui's desk, a sort of advanced gizmo and thought that if he pawned it, it would get him a fortune. It did not matter to him, of course, that it belonged to the company, or the fact that he would get in trouble for it. He dove for the gizmo and had managed to grab it before he disappeared into the light.

A timid looking girl with blue hair stuck her head in slowly, "M-miss Hongo?" she asked in a shaky voice but saw no one there. Great; she had worked up all that courage to talk to Miss Hongo, the highest ranking female employee in the business and found out all that effort was for nothing?

_BOOM!_

All the workers in Seikou Electronics looked up startled as a blue haired girl ran screaming down the halls and out into the parking lot where she hid in her car for the rest of the day.

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PLEASE Review! 


	2. Science class has its uses

Hey people! Thanks for reviewing. (smiles happily)

Oh right...reader's response:

**caspercat22: **(grins) thanks for the compliments. If I could, i'd insert a happy face here, but since I can...just try to imagine it alright?

**Kyae Sohma:** congratulations on being the first to review this story!...(blinks) I bet she would...too bad no one's done that yet.

Enjoy chapter 2!

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"Alright, that was weird" Kristen muttered as she blinked many times to get the dots out of her eyes. The light had been so damn bright. As she started to look around, she began to realize that getting sucked into your computer by a bright light and landing in some kind of terrain was _not_ good for the body.

She looked around for Seiriko and to her utter surprise and ire, found her friend sitting on the ground, simply staring at her. Kristen groaned and fell back onto the ground, "I really hate you" she muttered.

"I love you too" Seiriko smirked, "Now, after watching you for twenty minutes and seeing you awake, I have concluded that you are not dead"

Kristen's eye twitched, "Why didn't you just CHECK FOR A PULSE!"

"That involves moving" was the simple, yet lazy answer.

"And what if I did die? Would you keep staring?" Kristen asked.

"…only until I see the vultures circling above us" Seiriko grinned.

Kristen slammed her palm against her forehead in frustration, "You're impossible"

She did not know whether Seiriko responded to that for Kristen had begun to look at their surroundings and along with the dead looking terrain, what could be described as a forest, and no buildings in sight. In fact, there were not even people in sight, meaning that the two girls were stuck in the middle of nowhere. Unless this was a dream, of course.

"Pinch me Seiriko" Kristen ordered, "I swear, this _must_ be a dream; I probably just hit my head on something back at my house and went unconscious" she reasoned.

Shrugging at her friend's logic, Seiriko reached over and…

_Poke_

"OW!" Kristen yelped, turning to glare at the black haired girl, "I said pinch not poke and damn it; cut your stupid nails!"

"I did!" Seiriko wailed, holding out her fingernails, which had been cut and filed into a rounded shape, rendering them unable to really hurt anyone…unless you were Seiriko of course, "Why does everyone tell me that?"

"Because it _hurts_!"

"Does not"

"Does too"

"Does not"

"Does too!"

"Does not"

"Does too"

"Does no – hey, I hear something" Seiriko broke away from the endless 'does not does too' argument, "Coming from those trees…sounds like voices"

"I don't hear a thing" Kristen insisted, "Are you sure you aren't hallucinating from the sugar you had today?"

"I've _never_ hallucinated!"

"Yes you have"

"Have not!"

"Let's not start this again"

"Fine"

"Hey, I hear it too" the voices had gotten louder – or the people had just moved closer – and Kristen could hear garbles of voices now, "Maybe it's someone who knows where we are and can bring us back to civilization!" she yelled, running for the trees.

"And maybe someone with a sense of direction!" Seiriko added, "…who knows the area!"

"Shut up!" Kristen paused to whack Seiriko over the head.

The voices had become clearer as they ran through the trees, which was a poor excuse for a forest, if you asked any of the girls; the trees looked dead and the wood had long grown rotten, but made a perfect place to conceal oneself. The two girls could hear snatches of the conversation now.

A man's voice, growling and unpleasant to the years, " – and hand over what money you have"

A woman's voice, trying to calm but unable to keep a hint of panic and fear out of her voice, "No; go away"

"You dare to defy me, _woman_; I can cut your throat right here instead of giving you to the slave traders"

Deciding that this conversation was definitely not one they wanted to barge in on, the two girls in quiet tones, decided to hide behind one of the trees and see what was going on.

A group of men, all heavy set and with an unpleasant look to them were crowded around three people. All three were probably about the same age, although one was incredibly huge and although her life was probably on the life, she was quietly stuffing some candy into her mouth. She had a look of fear on her fear even as she popped food into her mouth at an amazing speed.

The man next to her had his arm protectively around her – well, most of her at least – and was obviously her husband or something of the sort. He _looked_ younger than his wife and he had an expression on his face that the men around them obviously did not look, for one of them punched him, sending him flying and to the ground.

"Taka!" the fat woman screamed, pausing only a second to stop feeding herself.

"Stay down" the man pointed a weapon at the woman.

"Miaka! How dare you!" the turquoise haired man leapt back up, wincing, "She is the priestess of Suzaku and I am Tamahome of the Suzaku Seven; we _saved_ this country and this is how you treat us!"

"Shut up!" the man hit him again, "The Suzaku Seven are _dead_; the _gods_ are dead –"

"Calm yourself" a sharp voice spoke from behind the man, "We need not speak to them, not justify our reasons. We need only to take their money or sell them"

So entrapped in this conversation, the girls did not even make sure that none of those men saw them. One did however and had snuck up behind them, "Hey Boss! I found two more!" the man shouted, startling the girls. Both looked up at the large man with wide eyes and mouthed, '_It…_', or at least, one who could be the equivalent of It.

They could not even run for the man – who will be referred to as That – had a firm grip on their arms, nearly crushing their bones with his larger than average hand.

"Good" Boss said, grinning widely, "We'll get much money for these two. They're young and ones their age are in demand"

Hearing this, the two girls squirmed against That's grip even more. They were both half relieved and half startled when they were thrown between the man and the last woman, who was the woman who had been arguing with the men before. (It could only be her seeing as the only other woman was the one stuffing her face)

"Yes…we'll get much money for these three…kill the fat one and the man" Boss ordered.

"NO!" the blonde woman shouted.

"Yui! Run!" Miaka shouted, not noticing the fact that they were _surrounded_.

"Kristen…if we get out of this…can I kill her?" Seiriko whispered.

"_No_ Seiriko; it'd be the equivalent of killing _It_ and remember when we discussed the consequences of _that_?"

"You're right. We don't want to drown in blubber" Seiriko sighed. They turned their attention back to the conversation taking place.

"Why? You people don't have the disposition of common thieves and slave traders; why are you doing this?"

Boss paused, "You're right" he glared, "We were once merchants, not thieves"

"T-then you'd know the good of taking the priestess of Suzaku to the emperor, do you not? This _is_ Konan, right?"

"Right…but it'd do no good because the Four Gods are gone"

"We can summon – I'm the priestess of Seiryuu!"

"The Gods are _dead_!" Boss growled, "Do you not understand?"

"No…at least tell me if you're planning to kill or sell us" Yui pressed.

Silence.

"Fine" Boss snarled, "After you left us to take care of the destruction you all caused, we began to prosper for about twenty years and then – Emperor Boushin was assassinated; a new emperor was on the throne and the country fell into two sides; aristocrats and the common folk. There was a civil war which destroyed everything; we prayed to Suzaku and when he did not answer, we tried praying to all the other Gods. _None of them answered_!"

"Well, they're Gods…I don't believe they can come down and – "

"No, we found out that they were truly dead; our proof? The people in which the dead Suzaku seishi had been reborn as and the living Suzaku seishi…all of them, in a moment during the civil war…their symbols glowed brightly and then…they all died. Their runes turned black and we knew…the Gods were gone"

"But Gods are immortal" Taka asked, blinking, "How can they – "

"They left" Yui said simply, "They eventually stopped answering prayers and stopped making miracles and the common folk lost. The aristocrats won, with their money and advanced weapons and you, who only had the Gods on your sides…were defeated and left to live a life like this"

"Yes" Boss said simply, "But we worship a new God now, one who saved an entire city from a plague – Enma"

Kristen was getting tired of listening to this. These people blamed the Gods, or whatever, for leaving them when all they seemed to do was rely on the God? No wonder the Gods left. She discreetly dug into her pockets, hoping for something that would help her out of this situation. All she found was a few strips of what she was supposed to have used in science class had she not decided to play with the fire instead.

She felt a nudge on her left side and glanced at Seiriko, who flicked her eyes to her hand, which was hidden in her sleeve. Kristen's eyes widened at the sight of a lighter, "Where'd you get that?" she hissed.

"Stole it from thefat woman's husbandwhile he was talking to _them_" Seiriko grinned, flicking it to make sure it worked. Now…if they could just put the lighter to some use…

"I have a sparkler too" Seiriko announced.

"Where'd you get _that_?" Kristen was not sure if she even wanted to know.

"It was on the ground and it was shiny"

Of course. That explained everything; Seiriko was attracted to shiny things and had long ago made it an instinct to scream 'SHINY!' whenever she saw something shiny and run and grab it.

"You have anything?" Seiriko asked.

"Just this useful pieces of…something…from science"

Seiriko's eyes widened, "Hey, magnesium" she grinned, "That causes a really tiny explosion, but I think it might startle these guys enough for us to escape"

"Right"

Seiriko got up slowly, making sure the group noticed her.

"Hey you; get back down"

"No" Seiriko grinned.

"Do you want to die?"

"Not particularly, no"

"Then get down or we'll kill you"

"Ah…but what if I kill _you_ first?"

"Ha! Don't make me laugh little girl!" a man chortled, "A young one, especially a _girl_ like you, couldn't kill me"

"If I was a witch I could"

"But you aren't"

"Are you sure?" Seiriko flicked the lighter and quickly held the flame over the end of the sparkler and watched as the sparkler did its job of startling the men into a state of fear and shock. Giving the lighter to Kristen, she waved around the sparkler.

Kristen had managed to light the magnesium safely and threw the few pieces all around at the men, watching in amusement as they ran off at the sound of the explosion.

_Next time_, she decided, _I'm paying attention in Science_

"There; see, fire fixes everything" Seiriko announced. The two turned to their fellow former captives. Kristen groaned when she saw the man looking enraged that two _women_ had managed to best him and Miaka stuffing her face. Why did she get the feeling that she was going to spend a _lot_ of time trying to get rid of them forever?

"I'm Yui" the tolerable woman introduced, "This is Taka – it's best that you just ignore him at all times – and Miaka – I have…no advice for her…" she said, looking disturbed and her eye twitching at the mention of Miaka, "And you are?"

"Kristen..." the redhead eyed the other three distrustfully, "And this is Seiriko"

"Judging from your clothes, you seem to be from our world"

"_Excuse me_?" Seiriko choked, "What do you mean 'our _world_'?"

"This is a different world"

"Kristen, we've entered the loony bin!" Seiriko wailed, shaking her friend, "Quick; we must draw up elaborate plans to escape"

"Or we could just find out how to make an explosive"

"HOOOWWWWW"

"We could say that we're chronically afraid of people teaching us to make bombs and they might make us face our fear"

"Hm…that could work"

"Why? What were you planning to do?"

"Start up a revolution in the loony bin"

"That'd take longer"

"True…explosives it is then"

"YOU'RE NOT IN THE LOONY BIN!" Taka shouted. The girls glanced at him, glared, and then continued their conversation, which was interrupted very quickly by the arrival of one very, _very_, ugly old woman with flowing pink ribbons behind her and she was_ floating_...?

Wide-eyed, the two teenagers turned to each other and then looked back at the floating woman.

"Kristen…it floats"

"Seiriko…it's really really scary"

"…I think we should slowly back away"

"Yeah…and then run off"

"Stay right where you are!" the woman barked, causing the girls to scream in terror. The teenagers tried to run but ended up slamming right into each other.

"Oww…."

"Right; you're not leaving. It took me quite a while to find you. I am the creator of this world, Taiitsu-kun and you will listen" she said sternly.

"Fine" was the sullen answer.

"Not you though, Taka and Miaka" Taiitsu-kun said, "You don't have to stay. You don't matter"

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Please review! 


	3. WEAPONS

Yay! Thanks for all the reviews! Oh yes, my friend told me to remind you all that the characters are pretty much me and her put into anime form so there's bound to be a lot of inside jokes, most of which i'll explain if it comes to it.

**Reader's response:**

**caspercat22:** Yep. They don't matter. I hate them so therefore, in my mind and in this story, they will NEVER matter...until, i think, the end where me and my friend will think up horrible ends for both of them! (cackles evilly)

**notquiteagoddess:** I'm glad you liked it! (insert smiley here) o.0 i never knew there would another pair of people quite like my friend and I...geez, if you liked this one, you should see the one we wrote when she came over last weekend. We were watching Fushigi Yuugi again and we got extremely pissed off at Miaka and Taka so we wrote this story where we basically just spend the whole time tormenting the two. It's actually really funny but i don't think it's appropriate to post...too many swear words...anyways...just wait 'till they meet Tasuki...o.0...which is actually in a few chapters, i think.

**Kyae Sohma:** Yep. She did. And I personally think she should have done that in the series. (sigh) But alas...

Enjoy!

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Taka was currently looking at Taiitsu-kun in something akin to shock and horror. Well, if his hand had not been covering his eyes, he would have been looking, but alas, it seems that Taka has not yet discovered that he could not see through flesh, no matter how hard he tried. It seemed that the blue-haired man just never learnt. It was quite sad, seeing as he was supposedly a math teacher, and despite complains from students, Taka had yet to be fired from his job for diving for loose changed dropped onto the ground. 

"B-but…y-you…" he seemed to be at a loss for words. While he lost his capability of speech, he seemed to have finally gained the knowledge that he could not see through flesh, for he removed his hand and instantly let out a very girly shriek.

"You know…" Kristen muttered to Seiriko, "If he wasn't such a sexist pig, I would be wondering if he was some kind of transvestite"

"Kristen!" Seiriko shouted, "That's _disturbing_!"

"Oops sorry"

"My eyes still hurt"

"Yeah, the old lady is really ugly"

"I know; she ranks up there with Zoë, but at least Old Lady can be explained with old age. Zoë has no excuse_" AN: Zoe was mentioned in the first chapter, right before 'it', in case you people are wondering. She's this girl who's really annoying and...she's...kinda gross. But that's not why my friend and I hate her. We hate her because she always gets special treatment just becuase she has 'bout 0.00000004 percent less water in her body than the rest of us (rolls eyes) I don't see how that's any special..._

Taka had been listening to their conversation and shuddered every time that Taiitsu-kun was mentioned, which Taiitsu-kun hit him over the head for, "I saw that!" she snapped.

"_They _did it first!"

"Did not" the two girls chorused, plastering on innocent expressions.

"I know they did"

"Then why aren't you hitting _them_!" Taka shouted indignantly.

"Because I'd rather not give them brain damage"

"_More_ brain damage" Seiriko corrected.

"What about _me_?" Taka whined.

"Like I said before, you don't matter"

Seiriko snickered, which earned her a glare from Taka. He was obviously unaware, however, of the fact that Seiriko was a student of Kristen's in the art of glare-ification and therefore, was able to create a glare, many thousand times better than his. Therefore, Taka, upon seeing it, did in this situation what any cheap bastard with a girlish scream, an ego, sexist views and a fat blob of blubber for a wife, would do. He whimpered and fainted.

"Finally" Yui said with relief and did a dance in celebration of the fact that Taka had finally shut his mouth.

"Yes, good job" Taiitsu-kun said, amused, which brought images of a certain disgusting _creature_ into the minds of the teenaged girls. They successfully resisted the urge to scream.

Miaka, upon seeing her husband lying on the ground, looked at the girl with menace, "I-I can't believe you did that! You made him faint!"

If she was expecting an apology or even a bit of remorse from the girl, she was sorely mistaken. Seiriko simply glared at her and made a rude gesture, which of course, involved the raising of the middle finger, also known as flicking someone off. It was a common insult and usually, even the most idiotic of people understand. Miaka was, of course, an exception to that.

She looked confused and asked, "Why are you doing that?"

Kristen began to bang her head against the ground in exasperation at the stupidity of this woman. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something sticking out of Taka's pocket – his wallet. She quickly snuck over, making sure that Seiriko was still threatening Miaka, she took it, counting exactly how much richer she had gotten. Then she turned to watch Seiriko…

…and fell over in surprise.

Seiriko had somehow found a stick – a very long one, most probably from Taiitsu-kun – and was poking an unconscious Miaka with it.

_A good substitute for a dead hobo,_ Kristen thought, nodding with approval, _Actually, probably a good substitute for all the dead hobos in history_

"Can we get back to the subject at hand now?" Taiitsu-kun asked impatiently, although there was no mistaking the look of amusement in her eyes.

"Yeah. I want to know why we're here!" Yui said just as impatiently, "And how the hell the gods are supposedly 'dead', and why the hell are we here if they're dead and there's a new god…and why the hell we're here!"

"Reasonable questions, Seiryuu no Miko…but unfortunately, I cannot reveal those answers, but if you remember, people from your world only arrive when –"

" – when the countries are in danger…" Yui said, "But it won't work for us anymore! Miaka and I don't qualify as priestesses since we're not 'pure' and Taka, well, he's not considered a seishi anymore, is he? The Tamahome side of him left, but unlike the seishi in this world, because he was in a different world, only the seishi side left and that's why he's not dead" she finished this all in one breath.

"Correct" Taiitsu-kun said, "And no, you are not here to become priestesses"

"Thank god" Kristen muttered, "Who wants to be like Kagome?"

Taiitsu-kun glared at her, "I cannot reveal much more than that, for I have been restricted from revealing such things. However, I have been allowed to reveal that you must go gather the seishi once more" she paused, "Or at least…these two will" she indicated the two teenagers.

"Them?" Yui asked incredulously, with good reason. Having seen the insanity that the two seem all too happily to induce wherever they went, she doubted that having them gather the seishi was a good idea.

"Yes. Their success will be prudent in this land's imminent survival"

"Alright" Yui said, "And I guess I'm here because nobody wants what was repeated last time – two girls from another world running amok causing chaos – to happen again?"

"Precisely. Now, you will –"

"Hang on a moment!" an angry voice called, "You expect us to stay here in this place with nothing from our own world to help us survive this easier! There isn't even anything remotely similar to technology here!"

Kristen glared fiercely at Taiitsu-kun, who could not help but shudder in fear. What a strong glare…

"What do you expect me to do about it?"

"You're the goddamn creator right?" Seiriko asked, "Either let us go back and get the things we need and want or we'll give you a list and you'll magic them up for us"

"Fine…write your damn list" Taiitsu-kun muttered.

Fifteen minutes later, the lists were done and handed to Taiitsu-kun, who called upon two of her Nyan-nyan's to get the things requested. An even longer while later, the two blue-haired children arrived with a bag in each hand, which Taiitsu-kun had explained held an infinite number of things, and was light at the same time, no matter what.

"I have a few things for you also" Taiitsu-kun said, "Now that you've gotten your things" she snapped her fingers and weapons appeared in front of Seiriko and Kristen. A sword was floating in front of Kristen, surrounded by a glowing ball of light; it was a very intricate sword, with designs inscribed in the hilt and the blade itself looked incredibly sharp. Seiriko had received a double-ended scythe; basically like a normal scythe except for a second blade on the other end of the rod. The rod, like Kristen's sword hilt, also had designs on it.

"Holy shit…" Seiriko muttered, not daring to blink, in case this was a dream. They were giving _her_ weapons! Along with the sword and scythe, each girl got a nice collection of daggers that were easily concealable.

Taiitsu-kun smirked at their reactions, "These weapons are were created by the Gods themselves for you when you arrived. They will appear before you when you need them and to no one else"

"Wicked" came the second awed reply, this time from Kristen.

Seiriko turned to her friend, "I love this world" she grinned, "They gave _me_ a _weapon_!"

"Oh shit…Gods save us all" Kristen muttered, which earned her a whack over the head.

"I somehow get the feeling that I should be worried…" Taiitsu-kun said quietly to herself.

* * *

WEAPONS! (cough) I mean...candy...yes...candy. 


	4. Banditism

Yay! Thanks for the reviews!

**Reader's response:**

**Kyae Sohma: **(twitch) must resist puppy...eyes...(eventually gives up and gives you a weapon) Here you go!

**Queen of Monkey Magic: **Why thank you. Nice name by the way.

**notquiteagoddess: **did you get the email I sentthat I attached the story to?

Enjoy the story people!

* * *

Kristen understood many things. She understood that she was now in a completely different world, full of Gods and magic and stuff like that. She understood that the world was very similar to ancient China; she understood that there were seven people to look for in this country and perhaps, if more answers were not revealed soon, in the next three. She understood that Taiitsu-kun, the so-called Creator, had given _her _and _Seiriko_ weapons. 

There was one thing that Kristen did not understand however.

Why the hell were Miaka and Taka there with them?

She questioned this aloud, only to be given the arrogant answer of, "Because you need us" from Taka.

Seiriko abruptly made a 'pfft' sound, which caused Taka to swivel around and glare at her, "You think you can do anything without us?"

"Oh yeah" Seiriko nodded, "We can do a lot of things. We can walk, we can talk, we can kill you and most of all, _we can travel in peace without your wife's fat blinding our eyes and your arrogance stifling the air around us!_"

Yui could not hold back the snort of laughter.

"Do you think Taiitsu-kun would be mad if I killed them?" Kristen asked, eyeing Taka with a gleam in her eye and her sword was held in _just_ the right position – as if it was carefully set up like that – so that the sun hit in and looked especially menacing. Taka gulped.

"N-now…no need to…"

Seiriko smirked at her; a very evil smirk, to the eyes of Taka, but to Kristen, it was obvious that she was barely holding back her laughter. However, in the eyes of Taka, the fate of his money was much too important to risk and he took off running, not knowing that whatever money he had in his wallet had already been divided up between Kristen and Seiriko. Miaka took off after him, causing a second earthquake to hit Konan in the span of a day. The citizens were so utterly confused, seeing as earthquakes generally did not occur this time of the year, and if they ever had an earthquake, it would be a small one. This one was at least a 15000000. 9 on the Richter Scale. (which, really, only goes up to 10)

So, the three females, happily trekked off ahead (Miaka and Taka had simply ran the direction from which they had walked already), satisfied to be rid of both Miaka and Taka and having received no damage from the earthquake, although Kristen claimed to need a psychiatrist to help her get through the memories of seeing Miaka _run_. She had so thoroughly described it to the other females, in her shocked and horrified state, that the other two had quickly tried to knock the memory out of their heads.

Other than that, the journey after that, went along smoothly.

"Hey, do you think we're nearing a town yet?" Kristen asked Yui.

"Not a clue" Yui answered, surprising both girls.

"…you don't know?"

"Nope"

"Then why are you leading!" Seiriko hissed quietly, trying not to disturb the nearby forest and having some wild animal charge out and attack them.

"Dunno…because you were too busy knocking already fallen down trees over to block Taka and Miaka from following us and Kristen apparently, has a bad sense of direction"

"I thought you were in this world before" Kristen, ignoring the insult to her directional skills, asked.

"I was in Kutou, not Konan and back then, my seishi did all the work for me" Yui confessed, "Unlike Miaka, who was traipsing around, getting into fights over fish even when she was diagnosed with a deadly disease"

"Guess they found a cure…damn it" Seiriko muttered curses under her breath.

* * *

They walked around for another hour at least before Yui finally saw a town up ahead, or what she assumed to be a town. There were lights, in some houses, despite the hour of the night and what they all recognized as an inn was lit brighter than the rest. 

"I just realized…" Kristen suddenly thought, taking out the wads of paper that was money in their world.

Seiriko caught onto her train of thoughts, "I don't suppose they accept paper money here, do they?"

"Nope; if I remember correctly; it was gold ryos, silver ryos and bronze ryos and I think there's something else, but I forgot what it's called; mon, or something like that..." Yui shrugged sheepishly.

"Oh shit" Seiriko muttered, "Taiitsu-kun trusted our well-being, success and directions in _you_?"

Yui looked insulted, "I'll have you know that I – er…well…er…I almost got Miaka killed?"

Seiriko, "Good enough for me! Lead on, oh Great One!"

Kristen shook her head, "I know I didn't give you a slushie, and I know Yui didn't…so how the hell are you hyper?"

"…_candy_…"

"Back to the business at hand" Yui interrupted, "We need money"

"Right"

"And we need it soon"

"Okay"

"So we'll have to –"

Yui's would-be-brilliant suggestions was cut off by an exclamation from Seiriko. As all such things that come from Seiriko's mouth, it was not a good idea, especially under the influence of sugar filled embodiments of chaos also known as candy. Also, when Seiriko gets this way, one should also note that the extreme insanity also seems to spread to Kristen, and therefore, the two were quickly working on a somewhat dastardly plan to –

" – join a band of bandits!" Kristen finished.

"Well, I was thinking pirates, but that's good too" Seiriko nodded, "Especially since we probably won't have swab the deck or whatever"

"Exactly; praise my genius!" Kristen exclaimed, which Seiriko quickly obliged to, grinning like the maniac she probably was. Now, it was only Yui's opinion, but she had a good inkling that Taiitsu-kun had _not_ meant for the two girls to delve into the magnificent, cunning and rather violent art of banditism. She supposed that Taiitsu-kun had hoped that the two girls would quickly find one of the Suzaku seishi (hopefully not Tasuki, judging by what Yui knew of the seishi and his tendency to do illegal things) and would quickly gather the rest of the seishi. With the way the girls handled their weapons (as if they had been doing so for decades), Yui had to admit, the impression that they would be able to take care of themselves and finish things quickly _had_ seemed very plausible…if only for the fact that they were not entirely insane, out of their minds, bonkers, gone bananas…and all those other words one could use for 'crazy'.

"Uh…I really don't think – "

"Which is what we're here for!" Kristen said brightly, "We have made a marvelous plan that cannot fail and we will get to know the culture and will not give ourselves away _too_ much like Miaka did because if we _did_ give ourselves away, we could always just blame is on our banditism!"

"Is that even a word?" Yui asked.

"It is now!" Seiriko said, mumbling as she wrote a note in her notebook, "Add banditism to dictionary. Put picture of Kristen or Yui in bandit clothes next to it"

"I'm not going to be the definition of 'banditism'!" Yui shouted, high irritated now, "And you aren't either!"

"Of course you aren't" Seiriko said in a tone that implied that she was speaking to someone with a younger mental age than her. Yui could not help but state in her mind that Seiriko's mental age was very confused; one minute, it could be three years old and the next…

"I'm NOT!" Yui shouted. Then again, Yui's mental age was often confused also.

"Right"

"I'M NOT!"

"Fine, we'll take you out of the picture…" Seiriko pouted, "But we'll still be bandits!"

"No we won't!"

"Yes we will"

"Won't!"

"Will!"

"Won't!"

"Will!"

"Won't!"

"WILL!"

Kristen looked up when Seiriko finished the argument and Yui started banging her head against the nearest tree, "Don't worry Yui; _you_ don't have to be one. You can pose as our hostage"

"WHAT!"

"Either that or be a bandit" Kristen smirked as Yui looked resigned to her fate of being a bandit…or a hostage.

* * *

"I must say…MISSION: Find Bandit Base and Infiltrate has been a success so far" Kristen remarked casually. 

"I agree; 'Stage 1: find bandit base' has been completed"

" 'Stage 2: Infiltrate' has been completed. Such a success"

Yui growled, "Are you two _blind_ or are you missing the fact that we've been captured by bandits!"

"That's where Stage 3 comes in of course" Kristen said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Yui proceeded to try to knock herself out.

The door to the room opened and in walked a multitude of bandits, who were quite fitting their roll of bandits, dressed in 'ruffian' clothing, looking like they had just stumbled in from a fight at a bar. They all trailed behind a man who was obviously their leader, although he seemed more like a noble than a bandit. In fact, he even looked like a noble; only one apparent wound from the dangerous business of being a bandit; a scar over his right eye, moon shaped; shoulder length dark hair and silver eyes. The rest of him was well-kept compared to the rest of the bandits. But as far as leaders went, he was the epitome of leadership and power.

"My men say they caught you on our property" he asked.

"Haku; are you sure it wise to talk to them?" one of the bandits whispered.

"Yes, Haku; I hear they're insane"

"Absolutely mad"

"Crazy"

"Over the edge"

"Mental"

Haku looked amused, "I'm sure they're fine" he looked them in the eyes, "They must be fine warriors to get through the guards…and to put on such an act as to scare you"

"Who says it's an act?" Seiriko countered.

"Who says it's not?" Haku responded just as quickly. All three smirked, leaving a whole crowd of confused bandits behind Haku and an equally confused Yui (who had only managed to knock herself out for five minutes) behind the two girls.

"So…" Haku said, "What are two warriors, capable of defeating my guards, doing here?"

Thus began a conversation; a debate, an argument, a battle of words, one might call it –

"You tell him"

"No, you"

"You"

"You"

"you"

"you"

"you"

"YOU"

"YOU!"

"YOU!"

"Both of us"

"Fine"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

They both turned to Haku with determination in their eyes, "We wanna be bandits!"

None of the bandits, who had expected _that_ bit of news, fell over in surprised and Yui began to bang her head against the wall once more. Haku blinked once. Then twice.

He laughed.

* * *

BANDITISM! (pouts) I want to be a bandit for real. Then I wouldn't have to go to school and I'd spend my days getting drunk...oh, and I'd get weapons too...(sigh) 


	5. More Banditism

Hey everyone! Thanks for reviewing…I especially like how you all liked my new made up word. (grins happily: BANDITISM!)

**Reader's Response:**

**Kyae Sohma: **Yay for weapons! I like both Tasuki and Chichiri, but my favourite is Nuriko; well, I like all of them except Miboshi, Ashitare, Tamahome (and Miaka of course). But that's it. Everyone else rocks.

**caspercat22:** If only bandits still existed…I could be a bandit…or a pirate and spend my days doing what I love best: getting shiny weapons and…dong illegal things.

**notquiteagoddess: **Glad you like it. Yes, Tasuki's in this chapter. It's okay, I always have a 'bit too much sugar' too!...especially once I'm in the movie theatre and I buy a slushie! Yeah, I'll send the rest to you when it gets updated…which should be sometime today…

ENJOY THE CHAPTER PEOPLE…and please review; I like getting reviews. They're fun to read.

* * *

Being a bandit was not all it was cracked up to be, Haku firmly decided in his head as he listened to the two girls banter back and forth, spouting nonsense. If he had known he would one day become bandit leader and capture two incredibly insane girls, Haku would have listened to his father and would have gotten a decent job as a pirate instead of being a merchant. As strange as that sounded, many former merchants had the same line of thought as Haku; the civil wars had affected them all…_but_ if only Haku had become a dirty, stealing, rude pirate, he would be rich and possibly on his way to bury his treasure on a random island by now. Oh, how Haku wished it was so.

He cast a wary look at the girl who was advancing on him with a strange and dangerous glint in her blue eyes; dressed all in black clothes that looked strange to Haku, the girl did not look the type to be able to wield a sword, but yet there she was, holding a sword and staring at him with a gaze that made Haku want to hide under the nearest rock available and hope that she could not find him.

_This is what you get for laughing, idiot_, he thought mournfully to himself, wondering how he should arrange his funeral; cremated or buried?

He would have thought that the rest of his bandits might possibly help him, but unfortunately not. Due to the fact that they thought that their leader was in danger, almost all the bandits (in the room at any rate) had rushed at the two girls, only to be kneed, punched, kicked or hit with the rod of a scythe and the shaky handling of a dagger in its sheath by the blonde woman.

Haku had to hand it to the two women; they were fighters and they were loyal. He was reminded so very much of tales his father had told him as they had sailed on the seas from Kutou to Konan; his father had been a merchant himself and it was quite amusing to hear his father's career advice for him.

"_Father?"_

"_Haku…you can do anything you want…but I want you to be a pirate"_

"_A-a pirate!"_

"_Yes; a pirate would be the perfect choice for you. You can even wear an eye patch and I'll sail as far as I can to find a parrot for you!"_

"_Uh...father…wouldn't a merchant be –"_

"_YOU WILL BE A PIRATE!"_

"…_um…uh…oh look; a sword!"_

"_SEN HAKU! YOU GET BACK HERE AND BECOME A PIRATE!"_

Well, his father might not have been right in the head, but Haku still remember the stories his father had told, of warriors with powers unimaginable, those were had been born to summon the Four Gods and men and women who would willingly die for her team mates and friends.

Yui wondered how the hell she had gotten into this mess; why was _she_ going around, using one of Seiriko's daggers (although it was still sheathed) to knock out the bandits when she knew for a fact that both Seiriko and Kristen could do it on their own.

Ten minutes ago, she had watched as Kristen had angrily got up from the ground; the ropes that had bound all three of them had seemingly just _burned_ away and then she had started yelling at the leader about sexist views and how she was going to make sure he never laughed at the idea of female equality again.

"Uh…Seiriko?" Yui asked tentatively.

"Yes Yui?" Seiriko asked, a bit too happily to be considered normal.

"Why…exactly are you…smiling at this?"

"Because weapons are wonderful of course!" Seiriko chirped.

There were only two left and Haku got a _wonderful_ idea…well, more likely suicidal idea, but it was an idea nevertheless.

"I'll let you join us –"

"BANDITISM!"

" – if you can beat one of my men?"

"Boss!" the two men left groaned.

"No choice; Genrou, you fight the redhead"

Genrou was one of Haku's second-in-commands, along with Kouji. He had fiery red hair that stood out amongst the dark hair colours of the rest of the bandits; he had intense amber eyes and was grinning a fanged smirk.

Kristen looked at him and gave him a positively evil look as she flexed her fingers and then gripped her sword again.

"Rules for this fight?" she asked.

"First blood" Genrou said after a moment of thinking. They really had no good reason to try to hurt each other, so the first one to draw blood would be the victor.

"Bring it on Fang boy"

Genrou glared at her, "Don't call me that!"

Then the fight started. Genrou wielded a strange weapon; it looked to be a fan, but it was made of steel, or something equally as hard. It did not do little damage either; it also allowed Genrou – who was quite fast – to move quickly to attack.

Kristen was no amateur with her weapon either. She did not know how she had suddenly known all the proper ways to wield a sword and developed all this skill with the sword, but she was not complaining. She had assumed it had come with being on this mission and perhaps Taiitsu-kun had gifted her and Seiriko with this or something of the sort.

Genrou charged and swung his 'tessen' in a circular motion, barely missing her cheek as she dodged the blow. She ducked under his arm and attempted to elbow him in the stomach, but like she did before, Genrou dodged it, by leaping backwards.

Kristen knew now that it would not be an easy fight, unlike the few fights with slave traders she and Seiriko had gotten into on the way to the bandit base. Quickly, she slashed at him, hoping to catch him off guard but no such like. Genrou blocked it with his tessen and smirked at her, "You're not going to beat me that easily"

"Same goes for me" Kristen said through gritted teeth as she tried to look for a weakness, but it was proving futile no matter how hard she tried. He matched her move for move; he was a match for her in speed and consider how much taller he was than her, it was impressive.

They circled each other, both looking for an opening, anything to end this fight and get it over with. Genrou was not a patient man after all, and it had been a while since anyone matched up to his skill in battle. It was refreshing to say the least, to finally have a challenge.

Twenty minutes into the battle with nothing but blows countered, Kristen suddenly smirked and swept her foot around, sending Genrou crashing to the ground, which was equalled by Genrou's foot managing to get her on the back of the her knee as he fell, sending her to the ground also. Sitting on the ground, she and Genrou glared furiously at each other, frustrated that what would normally be easy picking was proving to be harder than either of them had thought.

Kristen managed to get up before Genrou and just as he was about to charge at her, she stepped to the side and managed to hit where his ribs were with the flat side of her sword, causing him to widen his eyes in surprise and Kristen to grin. Finally!

Genrou, of course, was not put off by one hit and with a burst of speed so fast that even Kristen could not see where he was going, he attacked. Kristen let out a barely heard gasp of surprise when she felt what could only be Genrou's tessen, thrust into her gut. It was one of those painful hits that caused one to double over and double over she did. Genrou, was not in the best of shape either; despite Kristen using the flat side of her sword, his ribs hurt like hell.

Suddenly, both fighters found themselves in a position that suggested a draw. Kristen's sword was a millimetre away from Genrou's throat and the same was said for Genrou's tessen. Both fighters glared at each other for a moment but quickly recognized the battle as a draw.

Haku sighed, "Fine. You will be bandits"

"Why were you so against it anyways, Boss?" Kouji, the one who Seiriko was _supposed_ to be fighting – he and Seiriko had settled down with a bottle of sake and had been watching the fight – asked.

"I was planning to use the last room for something else" Haku pouted.

"What?" Kouji asked.

"Well…"

"A second training room?"

"No…a secret bar so you guys will stop drinking all my sake!" Haku pouted.

Seiriko covered up her laughter with a loud cough, "So we're in then?" she asked, "What with me and Yui beating the shit out of your other bandits and Kristen matching Genrou in a fight?"

"Yes" Haku said begrudgingly, "You'll the room I was talking about. It's a large one and you'll have to share"

"No problem!" Seiriko grinned. She bounded up to Kristen, dragging Kouji with her, "Guess what?"

"What?" Kristen asked warily.

"Kouji talks to himself"

* * *

BANDITS!


	6. Insanity in Bandits

Hello! Alright, so this isn't my best chapter ever, but whatever…there's insanity and that's all that matters…

**Reader's Response:**

**Kyae Sohma:** o.0…that is a scary thought…a really really really scary thought. (shivers) I should do that one chapter…it'd be so funny…

**Queen of Monkey Magic:** nice new word; and thanks. Glad you liked them! nn (that's the best smiley face I can come up with 'cause the normal one, ffnet just takes it out when I post it…)

**Caspercat22:** Kouji and Tasuki are AMAZING! They're so great together and it's really funny!

**Notquiteagoddess:** Why thank you. (takes a bow) Yeah, I guess I could post it under M, but then I'd have to come up with a summary for the story and I really hate doing that, especially since there's a limit to how many words I can have until ffnet cuts the rest out…(pouts) that's a good word too. Despite the coolness of fighting with a fan, I'd only choose it if it was like Tasuki's and spewed out fire. If not, then I'd stick with a bladed weapon. LOL; alright; his name is now Keith.

ENJOY! (Oh, yes, there's an inside joke in here somewhere and I've put a little 1 next to it and it will be explained like an endnote of sorts at the bottom of the page)

* * *

Haku sighed as he sat outside, perched in one of the trees near the bandit base, glad to finally get away from the chaos that was banditism. He noticed that the skies were clear and seemed to be a perfect summer day, with the green grass shining with dew, the sun shining brightly through the trees, making the leaves seem to almost glow green, the birds chirping brightly – 

Haku paused...birds…

Almost, as if thinking of it had caused it to happen, there was suddenly three shouts of, "DAMN YOU FUCKING BIRDS!" and, "SHUT THE HELL UP WITH YOU AND YOUR GODDAMN 'SINGING'! SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE! "

Last but not least, "SOMEONE RID THE WORLD OF THOSE STUPID EVER-HAPPY FUCKING PESTS!"

The shouts coming from the base woke up all the bandits that were still asleep and managed to carry over to the forest where Haku was and the noise startled every living critter there was, and managed to get a few birds very insulted. They flew away, squawking indignantly.

Haku sighed, his perfect day disrupted by three of his bandits, who were making him seriously consider an early retirement. He made his way back to the bandit base, eager to get to the confines of his own room and hopefully avoid three bird-hating – not to mention definitely not morning people – bandits. Alas, luck was against him especially today for the three of them were grumbling as they spread fear and trepidation on those who came upon them.

Genrou growled, using explicit swear words to describe exactly how he hated birds and he so very wanted to go and kill every one of them right now…if not for the fact that they could fly, and he could not. Genrou had learnt the hard way when he was six that he could not fly; jumping off from a tree and flapping his arms, his mother had screamed and from her mouth came so many of the words that Genrou used when he was angry. There was no question where Genrou picked it up from.

Yui walked behind the three teenagers, grumbling about her disturbed sleep and how'd she'd like to get hold of one of their necks and strangle them later on. Of course, Yui was not a morning person either and the three of them were quite sure she did not mean it…but there was of course, that undeniable 'I think' lurking in the back of their minds.

Despite Haku and Yui, however, the other bandits were quite amused by this behaviour, especially Kouji, who sometimes made it his daily mission to get up before the three and listen for the profanity that was sure to spew from the mouths of the three bandits.

Honestly, Kouji thought, They should have been bandits from the moment they were able to walk. Suddenly, he had to smirk as he got an image of Seiriko and Kristen, both as toddling children, swiping some unsuspecting family friend's wallet as they cooed at the children. He did not need to imagine it for Genrou, for he knew for a fact – as he was there when it happened – that Genrou, even at the age of two and a half was very capable of stealing necklaces of pearls and – sometimes – diamonds off of visiting aunts. His first word, even, had been 'shiny', or so Genrou's mother told them every time Kouji and Genrou went back home for a visit.

"What did nature ever do to you?" Haku grumbled as he walked in.

"We have nothing against nature" Kristen interjected.

"It's not shiny" Genrou added.

"But it does have its good qualities" Seiriko finished. This was a habit of theirs, along with Kouji. All four of them had secured such a tight friendship full of chaos and mischief over the two months that they had been at the base that for some odd reason, a seemingly telepathic connection had formed between them. Yui had an inkling it was because Genrou was actually Tasuki (judging from stories from Miaka, although she had not told the two girls yet; for some odd reason, whenever she tried to, she found herself unable to speak, which brought upon her grumpy mood) and Kouji perhaps played some role in all this, if he was reborn again, which generally did not happen to normal people.

"Look at what comes out of nature"

"Weapons…or at least stuff to make weapons"

"Diamonds"

"Fire"

"Genrou trying to fly" Kouji finished with a dreamy expression on his face as he struggled not to laugh at the same time.

"Hey, shut up!" Genrou hit Kouji across the head, "How many embarrassing stories do you have to keep telling them?"

"A lot…hundreds, actually, with all that you did when we were kids"

"I have embarrassing stories of you too!" Genrou retorted.

"Not as many; if I remember right, you were always the one that did stupid things…I mean, who in their right mind actually tells your insane sister that she's hopeless while's she's holding a huge log in one hand and an axe in the other!"

"Well, like you said, she's insane"

Kristen muttered to Seiriko, "We've gotta meet this sister"

Seiriko nodded in agreement, "I bet she knows even more embarrassing stories than Kouji"

"It's times like this that I'm glad we're not in our own world"

"No embarrassing stories"

"Like that time you had that bottle of Mello Yello…"

"Shut up"

"Or that time you had those cookies I made"

"Shaddup"

"Ooh…AND All those times you had slushies n the movie theatre"

"And don't forget the flaming baby"**1** Seiriko suddenly pointed out, giving up on ever getting her friend to let the subject of embarrassing things to drop.

"How can I forget?" Kristen asked dryly.

"I dunno…if I knock you unconscious?" Seiriko suggested innocently, but as everyone in the bandit base learnt the hard way, no matter what innocent face either girl put on, they were never innocent of any crime that had recently been committed. The chances were that they were both one way or another behind what had happened. The bandits had learnt long ago never to criticize them ever again. They were still traumatized from the first incident.

Kristen eyed Seiriko suspiciously, backing away, "This is why people no longer trust you"

"I don't see why not" Seiriko shrugged, "It's just a hypothetical situation"

"Most of those turn out to be true"

"Coincidence"

"No it's not!"

"Yes it is!"

"No, it's not!"

"Okay, okay, SHUT UP!" Haku roared, his face contorted into a frustrated and angry expression. However, Haku should have known that not everyone would fall silent at this. For example, Genrou and Kouji, who like Kristen, had been listing embarrassing things the other had ever done. It was a _long_ list…especially when one was talking about Genrou.

"I am seriously considering an early retirement" Haku muttered to Yui.

"Lucky you" Yui retorted, "I'm stuck with these two for a _long_ time"

"I'm sorry" Haku said morosely.

"Well, I've only had to put up with them for two or so months; how long have you had Kouji and Genrou?" Yui questioned.

"Four years" Haku said, choking back a sob. Yui patted him comfortingly on the back, while hoping to all that was holy and good that _she_ did not have to put up with this insanity for four years also.

Eventually, Haku gathered up enough courage to walk over to where the insanity asylum were and hit them all over the head, demanding their attention.

Grumbling, they shut up and looked up at Haku with an expression that clearly said 'well? Get on with it!'. Haku glared at them and to everyone's relief, told the four that they were outside on duty to 'banditize' anybody that might pass by.

" – and no taking the shiny stuff for yourself, Genrou!" Haku called threateningly, "Or I'll enlist your mother as a bandit!"

Genrou, who was quite fearful of his mother…and all females in his family, actually, quivered in fear and nodded numbly.

* * *

It was decided long into the afternoon that should anyone pass by, Kristen and Seiriko were to be the ones to induce insanity that day, while Kouji and Genrou stole as much stuff as they can because for one, Genrou was incredibly fast and could do it quicker than the girls, and two, Kouji knew what threats to use to keep Genrou from taking all the shiny stuff. 

And so it was that the merchant Wei of the town of Xaiou passed by when the girls were getting decidedly bored and were itching to spread their insane ways onto someone else. Wei whistled a tune to himself, assuming that nobody was around to hear him except maybe the birds. _Strange…_ he thought, _Where are the birds today? _

He was so entrapped in the mystery of the missing birds that he failed to realize –

"HELLO!" Seiriko popped up in front of the man, who let out a shout of surprise. She grinned widely at him, putting on her 'innocent' face.

"…h-hello" he stuttered.

"Whatcha doing here?"

"…travelling"

"Really? Where? Can I come? I promise I won't cause too much trouble; ooh; you have a lot of shiny stuff!" her eyes had widened to the size of saucers.

" I – "

"I have a friend that likes shiny things" Seiriko said, opening her mouth again to continue the onslaught of words.

" I don't care about your friend!" Wei shouted suddenly, irritated at the girl and her ability to talk faster than he could follow, "I don't care if you like shiny things! Get out of my sight! I'm in a hurry"

Seiriko's eyes frosted over as she turned her gaze back onto Wei. He suddenly felt like he should be running far, far away, possibly to the very end of the world. Seiriko advanced, red eyes promising so much pain and death that Wei was frozen to the spot. Then, after a few moments, they were only a few centimetres apart when Seiriko suddenly…

"Boo" she hissed and poked Wei in the forehead with her ever-so-sharp fingernails, sending Wei flailing as he fell on his behind. The last he saw of her was seeing the black haired girl running off, laughing insanely into the forest.

When he got up, he saw that someone else had joined him. This time, it was a girl with red hair and ice blue eyes, "Hello!" she called out.

"Hello" he said irritably.

"Can you help me with something?"

"…sure…?"

"Good. I'm doing a job for a very important man; and I'm supposed to track down this girl. Black hair, red eyes, supposed to be completely insane; have you seen her around anywhere, perhaps?"

"Yes!"

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Really?"

"Yes! Why are you trying to find her anyways?"

"Oh…well, that's a secret" Kristen smirked.

"Hey, I saw her! I have the right to know!"

Kristen pretended to think it over, counting to fifteen, when she saw that the man's curiosity had increased tremendously, "Well…alright…apparently, she goes around murdering merchants" Kristen said in a serious tone of voice, "She doesn't need a weapon though. Her fingernails have some kind of deadly poison traced into them and…one touch and you have only a few days to live – if you're lucky"

The merchant looked scared now; he was even trembling. Kristen sniffed the air and scooted away from the man instantly. Gross.

"…a-are you sure?" he asked.

"_Dead_ sure" Kristen nodded, "Oh well. At least she never touched you, sir; well, gotta be off!" she ran off, meeting back with her fellow bandits and partners-in-crime.

"You got everything?" she asked Kouji.

"Everything. I even made sure Genrou didn't take anything for himself"

"Keep an eye on Seiriko too" Kristen advised.

"You ruin all my chances at achieving shininess!" Seiriko pouted.

* * *

1. Alright, I said I'd explain it. No, in case some people are wondering, we didn't really set a baby on fire nor have we ever seen a baby on fire. We were just too hyper and laughing too hard in Anthro (Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology) class and we misheard something the teacher said, and we ended up hearing 'daily income of flaming babies' or something like that and Kristen and I thought it was really funny and well, she drew it. That's that….I still think it's funny… 


	7. A trip

**Reader's response:**

**Kyae Sohma:** Shininess is awesome! And happy (belated) birthday! (pushes the seishi of your choice forward holding the cake) Hyper is good.

**caspercat22:** Yep; I love that too. So idiotic and so funny at the same time…it's a great combination…

**Queen of Monkey Magic:** o.0 shiny…

* * *

"I really think he was overreacting" Seiriko insisted, looking incredulously back in the direction of the bandit base, riding awkwardly on a horse. The only one that was actually riding the damn creatures properly was Kouji. Genrou, despite having grown up in a civilization that relied on horses for transportation, seemed to have an ongoing battle with them, resulting in him being hurled off, kicked, stomped on and other painful things. Seiriko and Kristen simply had the excuse of living in the city and did not have the opportunity to even learn what a saddle was first hand.

"I…really hate you" Kristen muttered to the horse, having flung its arms around its neck in a death grip, which was making the horse struggle with its breathing, much to the grim amusement of Kouji, who wondered how much a new horse would cost and how Haku would react to having one of the bandits' horses dead due to accidental strangulation.

He winced, remembering Haku this morning.

_Haku stormed into the room, bags under his eyes, which were bloodshot and he looked as though he had not gotten a wink of sleep._

"…_that's it" he said in a deathly whisper, his voice seemingly hoarse, "That's fucking it"_

"_Haku?" Yui asked timidly._

"_I've had enough…with your shouting at birds, squirrels, chipmunks, whatever '_It_' is and all that crap you scream about when you wake up or yell at when you're asleep. You four are certainly the death of me" Haku claimed, pointing an accusing finger at the group of four, who had all plastered innocent expressions on their faces, along with the supposedly irresistible puppy-dog eyes._

_Unfortunately, it seemed that Haku was so sick of waking up to screams promising death upon all living critters that he managed to _resist_ those eyes. Kristen had gasped, shocked. _No one_ had ever been able to resist puppy-dog eyes! NO ONE!_

"_You" Haku continued to point the accusing finger, "I don't care where you go, but you're leaving for two weeks and you are _not_ to return here until then. I need some decent sleep, quiet, peace and most of all, my_ sanity_!"_

_Then he stomped off, "I expect you out of here by noon!"_

_Kristen and Seiriko looked incredulously at the back of their retreating leader, "Uh…"_

"_Yeah…" Kouji trailed off, "He's weird isn't he? Yes he is, Kouji; yes he is. I know" _

_Genrou muttered darkly, "Where the hell are we supposed to go?"_

"_Well…"_

"…_no" Genrou interrupted before Kouji could continue._

"_But –"_

"_No"_

"_Genrou –"_

"_No"_

"_At least let me –"_

"_NO"_

"_Genrou…" Kouji paused, suddenly realizing that Kristen had clamped her hand over Genrou's mouth, "Thank you Kristen. You're welcome Kouji. No really, you managed to shut him up; it's a miracle. Well…"_

"_KOUJI!" Seiriko shouted, impatient._

"_Oh…yes…well, we could always go to our hometown" Kouji suggested, "We haven't been back there since New Years' and I'm sure Genrou will be happy to see his dear sister, Aidou" _

_Genrou whimpered, "…log"_

"_Not to mention Kiang"_

"…_frills…"_

"_Li'an"_

"…_lake…"_

"_and Pa'Liu" _

"…………_ah shit" Genrou finished. Seiriko and Kristen snickered at Genrou's comments, assuming that each comment was the scary thing about each sister._

"_So what's wrong with Pa'Liu?" Seiriko asked._

"…_she has _really_ bad cooking" Genrou exclaimed, trying not to shiver in memory, "Her cooking can kill an army of men" he claimed._

_Kristen cast a devious look at Seiriko, who also had a scheming look in her eyes, "Seiriko…"_

"_Yes?"_

"_Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"_

"_yes"_

"_Good"_

"_Yes…we need to start chopping wood!" Seiriko said happily, obviously thinking of the first sister. Kristen shot her a glare, "NO, not exactly what I was thinking" she said, "…but a good idea anyways!..._My_ idea's better though!"_

"_What is it?"_

"…_we take some of her cooking and feed it to It, Miaka, Taka and Zoë; we'll be rid of four terrors of the world"_

"_We should!" Seiriko grinned, picturing a world without the four abovementioned people…if they could be called people in the first place._

_Kouji coughed, "We got your bags from your room while you were scheming" _

"_You can turn anything into a weapon, can't you?" Genrou deadpanned._

"_Do not!"_

"_Yes you do"_

"_NOOOOO!"_

"_Have you forgotten yesterday's raid?"_

"_You mean when Kristen threatened that guy with an acorn?"_

"_Yes!"_

"_I still can't believe he gave us all that money"_

"_You'd think Haku would keep us after that"_

_Silence._

"_They'd die of boredom after a week" Genrou said decisively. _

_And half an hour later, they were off._

"Horses are pure evil" Seiriko announced when they stopped at an inn in town for rest, "They should be burnt at the stake instead of witches"

"Be careful what you say around…_them_" Genrou whispered as they dropped the horses off in the stable, "You never know"

"I'll show you 'never know'" Kristen whispered, "When I kill the guy who thought of riding a horse as easier…I mean, why not something that isn't evil…like a wolf, or a tiger, or even a cow"

"A cow?" Kouji asked.

"Yes. A cow"

"Why a cow?"

"I dunno…"

They walked into the inn, arguing the entire time until they got to the rooms where they separated, although Seiriko and Kristen continued to argue with the guys through the wall. The inn manager was _not_ pleased when he got several complaints.

* * *

"We're here…" Genrou said glumly.

"Really?"

"Yeah…right down there, at the base of the mountain" Genrou pointed at the small town below them.

"Seiriko?"

"Yes Kristen?"

"Are the logs ready?"

"Yes – erm…I mean, what logs?"

Genrou growled, "Logs? LOGS!"

Kristen gulped, "Uh-oh"

"Well, there's only one thing to do at this moment"

"What's that?"

"Run away from Fang boy of course!"

Seiriko took off with Kristen right behind her, both going at a remarkable pace, due to the fact that Genrou was right behind them, yelling, "DON'T CALL ME FANG BOY!"…and the fact that the path was going downhill of course.

Just as Genrou caught up to them, there was a shout of, "IDIOT!" and…a log went flying into Genrou's face.

* * *

...i don't think i need to really tell you to guess who THAT was...

...it's kinda obvious...


	8. Tasuki and Chiriko

Onto the reader's response since I have no messages for you…

**Queen of Monkey Magic:** Yep! Logs are quite useful…especially for hitting Tasuki (grins maniacally, joining you in the possible throwing of the logs)

**Kyae Sohma:** Why thank you. (grins) How was your birthday by the way? Fun?

**caspercat22:** Yep; of course, Nuriko doesn't come in until a few chapters later, so…it's Aidou!

**notquiteagoddess:** Ouch; sounds like you're really busy. It's okay (pats you on the head) at least you reviewed for chapter 7. I'm actually really busy too; only reason I can update this fast is 'cause most of the chapters are already written but I don't feel like putting them all up at once just 'cause I'm too lazy to edit the spelling and grammar mistakes of all of them. But once I post chapter 14 or 15, or whatever one I was on, well, it'd probably take a while for the next one. O.0…since I just finished summer school and now I have full day driving class for four days…o.0…oh well. Anyways, did I send you chapter 5 of the other story yet? I can't remember…

**Enjoy and please review.

* * *

**

_Nice shot_, Kouji remarked to himself appreciatively as he caught up to the group and looked into the furious face of Aidou, who had now produced another log from somewhere or another and was perfecting an art…also known as hitting Genrou repeatedly on the head with a log.

"…Now I know why he's so dumb sometimes" Seiriko whispered, "There's gotta be 'bout a hundred brain cells killed just now"

"…there goes another hundred" Kristen commented, grinning as Genrou desperately tried to fend off his sister's blow to his head with no avail.

"Aidou!" Genrou shouted, a growl creeping into his voice, "STOP HITTING ME!"

"You deserve to be hit until some sense creeps back into that empty head of yours" Aidou huffed, "What decent man chases two innocent girls like that?"

"Innocent? THEM! You've gotta be kidding me!"

"I am _not_; I mean, just look at them" Aidou pointed and Genrou saw indeed that to an outsider, each perfectly angelic face could pass as innocent.

"They ain't innocent!" Genrou shouted, "They're bandits! Bandits are not innocent!"

"…so now you've started recruited innocent girls to be bandits!"

"They _wanted_ to!"

The two looked as though they could argue about this forever but before they could continue, they were interrupted by an annoyed voice, "Aidou; keep it down will you? I heard you from all the way across town and the merchants told me to tell you and whoever you're arguing with to tone it down"

There was a young boy there, no older than thirteen, with light brown hair, much like Aidou's and large eyes that were green and seemed to have a thirst of knowledge reflected in them…quite the opposite of Genrou's.

"Oh hello" the boy said to the two girls, "I'm Ou Doukun, Shun'u's cousin"

Kristen gazed at him in confusion, "Who's Shun'u?"

Kouji laughed and slung an arm over her shoulder as if she was a child he was giving a vital talk to. Of course, no one with any sense would actually go to Kouji for advice so it was rare he did this and he was taking full advantage of it.

"Shun'u…is Genrou's real name" he explained, "He dropped it when he became a bandit"

Seiriko opened her mouth to ask something but was cut off by Doukun, "Yes, they do argue like that _all_ the time"

"And you're his cousin?"

"More like a brother actually" Kouji cut in, "Doukun lives with Genrou's family; they don't even refer to him as a cousin when they introduce him to other people"

"Oh…I see…"

"So…" Seiriko trailed off, a questioning look in her eyes.

"Yes?"

"…how many headaches do you get a day once _Shun'u's _home?"

Kouji and Chiriko burst into silent fits of laughter while Genrou – _Shun'u – _argued on with his sister, continuing to be completely oblivious to the conversation that was going on about him.

* * *

Three cloaked figures were huddled under the shade of a tree, discreetly quietly as they talked in hushed voices, ensuring that nobody would heard them; it was most vital that nobody find out their plans after all, for if anyone should, their leader would not be pleased at all. For these people had come with one purpose in mind, and that purpose had resulted from an order from one of their leader's higher ranked minions, who had threatened them with an _honest_ life should they come back empty-handed. Their mission was quite simple… 

"_If you do not bring them back, alive and relatively uninjured, do not even bother coming back at all" the minion had snapped, "Or I will leave our leader to deal with you"_

_One of the three cloaked figures shuddered at the mention of their leader's wrath, "But why must be bring them back?"_

"_Those girls are becoming more and more of a…threat" the minion disclosed, "They have come by two of the phoenix's chosen ones already; we are still unsure whether they really are that clueless about these things and are that lucky or they are acting"_

_There was a awkward pause._

"_Either way, they must be stopped"_

"_They can't be _that_ difficult to capture" Cloak Figure One scoffed, "They're just women"_

"_They are not women of this world!" the minion hissed threateningly, "Have you forgotten that incident we managed to witness with the slave traders? They are neither timid nor scared; they are cunning and have more than one trick up their sleeves…"_

"_Or they could just be lucky" Cloak Figure Two pointed out._

"_Yes…that too; but…GET GOING!"_

_With three identical squeaks, the cloaked figures ran off as if their leader himself was on their tails._

"I still don't know why they had to send _us_; surely, one of the lower ranked could do it"

"The leader must still be mad about that incident two months ago"

"Which one?"

"It was the month that he told us our missions were to bring in money from our own schemes and we tried to, but we ended up having a town chase us out, throwing tomatoes at us and it was then that the leader came to check up on us and he got hit with tomatoes too…"

"Oh yeah…I wonder where they get all these tomatoes"

"Let's get going" the third one said irritably, "Before the leader finds us doing this slower than he expected and punishes us anyways"

"Right"

* * *

Kristen glanced out the kitchen window of the Kou home, grinning as she watched Aidou get considerably more frustrated as her brother began to beat her in a game of cards; Doukun was alternating between studying his books and playing the game. Cursing slightly, she realized that she had finished the tea that had been in her cup. Lifting the teapot, she found that it was empty and cursed again. 

"Genrou, the teapot's empty" she stated.

"Go get the water yourself"

"But I don't know where you get water around here!"

"Well, I ain't going!" Genrou growled, "Help her, Aidou"

"I'm playing" Aidou said through gritted teeth to her brother, "You go and get it; be polite"

"NO"

As they started another argument, Doukun spoke up, "I'll go with you" he closed his textbook, glared at his siblings and rolled his eyes when they continued to ignore everything else around them, "Sometimes I wonder how I'm still sane" he muttered to himself.

Kristen snickered, "Really?"

"Yes…how are you sane, living in the same building as Genrou for that long?"

"Who says I'm sane?"

Doukun paused, thinking it over as they walked, "Well…" he finally said, "You're not an idiot at least"

Kristen grinned, "Ha! Shows what Seiriko knows!"

"Where _is_ Seiriko anyways?"

"Kouji's teaching her how to throw daggers and shoot arrows properly"

"I thought she already knew"

"Nah; she just throws them everywhere" Kristen explained, "So do I for that matter…" she paused, "But at least mine didn't accidentally go through a bird's nest" at Doukun's look, she added, "We were aiming for the targets on the other side"

Doukun laughed and he held the wooden bucket in his hand up, "Unfortunately, we don't have a well around here so we use the river" he explained, "It's a bit more work but it's the best we have"

"So who usually gets the water?" Kristen asked curiously.

"Definitely not Shun'u; you know that he's afraid of water"

"Unfortunately, the bandit base is on a mountain, so I've only had Kouji's word on it"

"Well, it's true; ever since we took a trip to the lake once when he was about eight or nine. He was being his usual idiot self and said something to his second-eldest sister, Li'an – she lives somewhere in Sairou now but visits a _lot_ – and Li'an, of course, got angry and threw him into the lake…right in the middle of it. Shun'u was too short back then to reach the bottom so…you can imagine" Doukun finished, grinning.

"Ah…that's why" Kristen grinned manically. What great blackmail material. Doukun dipped the bucket into the water and then brought it back out, letting the overflowing water splash onto the ground before handing it to Kristen, "I don't suppose you could carry this could you? I always manage to spill it when it's this full"

"No problem" Kristen took the bucket. As much as she usually disliked children and people who counted (in her mind) as children(such as anyone younger than her who was annoying), she liked Doukun; he was not a spoiled brat like most other children were and most of all, he did not annoy her. Besides…he held a lot of blackmail material in that head of his.

As she carried the bucket back toward the Kou home, she heard a sudden whizzing sound, another sound that she could not identify and then a loud laugh coming from the direction of the field.

"Damn it! How come I missed!" Seiriko's frustrated yell could be heard, "It's like that dagger – or my stupid hand – has a mind of its fucking own!"

"Now, now, Seiriko; you know that's not true…"

"The hell it's not! Then why the hell do I randomly turn around and throw it in the opposite direction? 'Cause I can't explain it myself!"

"…I'm sure…okay, okay; no need to get violent Sei"

"STUPID DAGGER! WHERE'D IT GO _NOW_!"

"Sei…you do realize that those daggers seem to return to you and Kristen after a few seconds, right?"

Silence.

"Of _course_ I knew that! Geez, Kouji!"

"Alright, let's practice that again; I don't understand it though…" Kouji said and Kristen could imagine him scratching his head, "It's definitely not the daggers…the last few daggers went the right way and even hit the targets…"

Kristen smirked to herself. Typical Seiriko. She saw Doukun's mouth opening and closing in something akin to disbelief, "You're right" he finally said, "You are crazy. Not idiots. But not sane either"

As they walked away from the river, two cloaked figures stepped out from behind a tree and quickly climbed their way up a tree where their comrade had hidden. Their mouths opened and closed in shock, disbelief and fear, for their comrade was…well, dead. He had a hole in the shape of a very sharp knife (or dagger) going from his back, right out through his front where his heart was located. The two remaining assassins gulped. They were definitely dealing with someone _very_ dangerous here.

* * *

Doukun quickly closed his textbook as he heard a set of footsteps approach him. He narrowed his eyes and sighed resignedly when he realized who it was. It was definitely not anybody he wanted to talk to at the moment, or in fact, for the rest of his life. 

"Oi; Doukun"

Not exactly strong, but stronger than Doukun, fourteen year old Chen was the classic definition of a bully; grimy, large and constantly harassing the people who annoyed him. He only had one target, however: Doukun. It was perhaps the way that Doukun always managed to confused Chen long enough for him to walk back to his house, leaving Chen incapable of doing anything. Today, it was something else.

"Think you're so smart, huh?" the boy demanded, "Showing off like that every class!"

"Do not blame others for your own stupidity and being the very image of an imbecile" Doukun replied smoothly. Chen looked confused for a moment, and then, "Hey!" he growled, "I understood that!"

"Really?" Doukun's eyes widened, "Congratulations! It only took six years of me saying the _exact same thing since I was seven!_"

Chen glared, but Doukun was not fazed. Who would be? After seeing the glares his brother received from the two female bandits, he now knew that no mediocre glare such as that could scare him. He smirked at Chen, which confused the boy.

Chen growled and made a gesture as to hit him, although it never came. He found himself in a steel-like grip of a redheaded girl who was glaring at him with the most frightening glare he had ever seen. Giving what sounded like a cross between a mousy squeak and an rather feminine shriek, he ran off quickly. Kristen shook her head amused, "Not very brave is he?" she commented.

"You're just scary" Doukun countered, feeling embarrassed that Kristen had to help him out of that scrape; usually, he was capable of it himself, but when he was not today, he felt oddly…ashamed.

"Who was that brat anyways?" Kristen muttered, "This is why I hate all other children; annoying spoiled brats"

"Why are you here anyways?"

"Kouji said he felt something 'ominous' in the air" Kristen rolled her eyes, "And insisted I go check out the town and possibly stop by the market and buy some carrots for dinner" she held up the carrots, "What'd you think? If we dye your brother's face green, they could be twins"

"I'd like to see that" Doukun nodded slowly, smiling.

"I gotta get back before Seiriko accidentally gets carried away while cutting up the other stuff for dinner" Kristen shuddered, "Never trust her with a knife"

"And never trust you with anything possibly deadly" Doukun recited.

"Where'd you hear that?"

"Seiriko"

"Bitch" Kristen muttered under her breath, "depriving me of precious deadly weapons"

Laughing, Doukun followed her to Kouji's home, which was right next to Genrou's. Seeing as Kouji's parents had passed away a year ago, the house had been empty and the two girls had been staying in there for the time being.

Seiriko met them at the door, pouting, "Kouji took away the knife"

"YOU WEREN'T CUTTING THINGS UP PROPERLY! WE DON'T NEED STAR SHAPED MEAT!"

"But stars are shiny!"

"SO!"

"…SOOOOOOOOOOOOO THEY'RE SHINY!"

"ARGH!"

Kristen rolled her eyes and Doukun laughed quietly to himself as he headed for his own home. As he opened his door, he heard a shout of, "I'VE GOT YOUR STUPID CARROTS! WHY DID WE NEED IT ANYWAYS!"

"Maybe we can pretend we're cooking Genrou?"

"IDIOTS!"

* * *

"Good job" one of the two remaining cloaked figures snickered, congratulating the other one, impressed, "I never thought of this" 

"What? Taking the most vulnerable person around them and making them come here?"

"Nope; I figured it was too obvious and simple"

"Simple is good in this case"

"Yes it is"

Doukun glared at them from where he was gagged on the ground. Vulnerable was he? _I'll show them vulnerable, once I get my legs free and we'll see how they like it when I put them in a world of pain!_ He growled much like his elder brother, _And then I'll make sure that I give you to Aidou!_

Doukun continued to plot as chaos reigned over the Kou household when they realized that Doukun was missing. The only thing they had to go on was that he had been taken from the schoolhouse by two black cloaked people, both seemingly male and had declared that the two girls from another world go to a certain address to exchange themselves for him.

Unfortunately, however, the aforementioned girls did not find about such a thing right away because they had been by the river, sparring with each other, using their strange weapons; every so often, they would switch weapons to get used to using different ones in case their current weapon was unavailable. They had not heard of the news of Doukun's kidnap yet.

Suddenly, Kristen paused.

"What's the matter?"

"Do you smell that?" she sniffed the air. Seiriko followed suit and then suddenly covered her nose with her sleeve, looking revolted, "That's disgusting!"

"It's not a skunk; I don't think there are any skunks around here" Kristen muttered, "Besides, skunks don't smell like that…"

"Nobody else is around…?"

Intent on figuring out what the source of the smell was so that they could get rid of it, they headed straight toward it, making a note to themselves to get Taiitsu-kun to give them some sort of gas mask next time they saw her.

"It's coming from up there" Kristen pointed up a tree and without waiting for an answer, climbed it swiftly. Seiriko followed, trying to cover her nose and climb at the same time. Remarkably, she managed it.

"Holy –"

" – shit"

There, before them, was a dead body of a cloaked man, bloody staining the branch he was laying on and from the looks and smell of it, he had been dead for a few days already.

"Hey" Kristen nudged Seiriko, "Look at that wound…" she pointed the hole in the man's chest out.

Seiriko's eyes widened and she took out one of the daggers. One might wonder how it had appeared out of seemingly nowhere seeing as Seiriko had no pockets nor a bag on her, but the answer was quite simple. Taiitsu-kun had liked Seiriko and Kristen more than she did Miaka and had given them all the things she thought would be helpful, including something akin to a holster, that could be strapped to their legs and could hold daggers and equally small swords.

"…it's definitely from one of our daggers…"

"But…I don't' remember hitting this guy…have you?"

"No…but remember…that time you were practicing with Kouji and your 'randomly' turned and threw it in the opposite direction. Maybe this guy was a danger…and…it's…like an instinct and so you threw it"

"…I've never thrown made an instinct for throwing knives, Kristen" Seiriko retorted, "How the hell is _that _possible?"

"Seiriko…how the hell is it possible for us to be stuck in Ancient China?" Kristen countered.

"Good point; alright, let's just blame it on the Gods"

"Right; it's probably their fault anyways"

Before they could speculate anymore, they saw Kouji running up to them, looking more serious than they had ever seen Kouji look.

"What's the matter?"

Unfortunately, the bandit was panting too hard to do much at the moment and the girls had to wait patiently for the blue haired bandit to regain his breath.

"Doukun…kidnapped…Genrou….something….stupid…"

"Right" Seiriko nodded. Kristen blanched, "I didn't understand a word!"

"Well, it's like when I was trying to understand Miaka enough to speak her language and tell her to fuck off" Seiriko explained, "But that was because she was just huge, not out of breath. Anyways…he said that Doukun was kidnapped and Genrou's doing something stupid"

"Alright…where are they?"

"The abandoned house on the other side of town"

"Alright; let's go!"

It did not take long to reach said house, nor was it hard to find. Genrou had left a lot of destruction in his wake and all they had to do was follow the splintered wood, the destroyed carriages, and so on before they reached the house, which was surprisingly quiet considering the fact that Genrou was there.

" – not the girls; where are they?"

"Dunno who the hell you're talking about! I want my brother back!"

"We'll give him back if you give the two girls to us!"

"Shut up and give me my brother!"

"Fat chance; you're our prisoner now"

"Two on one from behind ain't fair, you bastards!"

"Sentimental feelings and putting your brother's safety before your own usually ends up like this" one sneered. Kristen huffed at the sight of Genrou tied down and Doukun next to him.

"Are we gonna make a plan?" she asked her friend.

She got an 'Are you kidding me?' look for an answer.

"I'll take that as a no"

So without a plan, recklessly, idiotically, stupidly…

As they were doing this however, Genrou had grown angrier and angrier as these _bastards_ kept his brother tied up; there was obvious bruising on his brother's cheeks and neck, suggesting that they had held him by his neck at one point, which could very obviously result in the thirteen-year old's death. As he felt his rage build, he barely noticed the two girls walk in.

The two kidnappers did though and they immediately smirked as if the mere entrance of the two girls signified their victory.

"Well…looks like your plan worked"

"Of course it did!"

"We've got them, and now…to ensure that they don't manage to kill us, we'll bring the boy with us too"

"Right. If they don't come peacefully, the boy dies"

This was of course, the wrong thing to say, for along with Kristen and Seiriko steadily getting angrier and glares getting deadlier, Genrou was now a blazing inferno heap of uncontrollable anger. A red rune traced itself onto his wrist while he struggled to get out of his bonds. The rune glowed brightly and the rope was charred. The two kidnappers suddenly found themselves in a choke hold by the redheaded bandit as his golden eyes shone with fury.

"Hey…didn't Taiitsu-kun mention something about glowing runes and seishi?" Kristen asked.

"Yeah…" Seiriko remarked casually as Genrou – Tasuki – began beating the shit out of the kidnappers as though it was perfectly normal for Genrou to start beating two people up to possible death; knowing Genrou's temper, however, it was possible that it _was_. They quickly went over to where Doukun was and untied him, which he was grateful for as he rubbed his red wrists. He was immediately asking them questions, however – very typical of the young boy.

"What's that sign on Shun'u's wrist?"

"Oh…he's a Suzaku seishi"

"…um…I thought the Gods were dead?"

"They're back…uh…well, they will be…"

"And you're the two girls from another world that those insane idiots talked about?"

"Yep"

"…uh…you know that rune thing?..."

"Yes?"

"There's one on my foot every time I have to think hard" Doukun admitted, "Or if I concentrate on it"

Shocked looks were exchanged before the two girls grinned at each other, "That's two seishi!" Kristen remarked.

"Who says we're not productive?"

Genrou walked over, smirking, "I'm done" he said proudly. The two kidnappers lay on a heap on the ground, bruised all over and muttering what sounded suspiciously like prayers under their breath; if insane asylums existed in Konan, or any of the other three countries, rest assured, these two would be going there. To them, at this point, there were only two things in the world that scared them now. The lesser fear was of the leader, who had yet to punish them for failing…and then, there was this group. They shuddered in fear; anything but this group again. As their eyes surveyed the group, Genrou turned back toward them and his eyes glowed slightly as he made a growling noise.

Despite their grievous injuries, the two kidnappers made it quite far, shrieking very femininely in the direction that took them far, _far_ away from the town.

* * *

And finally, _finally_, there will be the official finding of the seishi... 


	9. The horrors

Chapter 9 is here! (obviously) I should really stop stating the obvious…

**Reader's response:**

**caspercat22: **Yeah, they do. Shiny things are amazing. Shiinnnnyyyy. (cough) as you can see, I like shiny things too. In fact, that aspect of their personality was kinda based of my irresistible urge to chase after shiny things.

**notquiteagoddess: **(puts hands over head in denial: lalalala…) NO! Not dead! (tries to burst into tears but…can't due to severe unemotionalness…yes I know that's not a word) Yeah, I love Nuriko. I have a lot of favourites in Fushigi Yuugi though, and I can never decide which one I like the most. Probably Nuriko, Tasuki, Nakago and Hotohori, if it comes down to it, but I think the twins are amazing too, and Soi's cool…so… I hate Miaka…(gathers mob of angry villagers bent on killing Miaka) Miaka must die! That's my opinion. I have a horrible fate for her in this story. (cackles evilly)

**Kyae Sohma:** He is. He's so freakin' cool when he's mad; he can be scary too. I mean, all those other times in the series he got mad was only 'cause stupid Miaka ended up hurt (I'm still angry about the battle in Kutou when she basically made him get beaten up 'cause of course, she didn't want a freakin' (I'm trying not to swear…so hard) scratch on stupid Tamahome)…but think about if his brother was in that situation. I think he'd be so fucking (I'm sorry, I couldn't control myself any longer) scary!

**O.0 Long responses this time. Oh well. Enjoy!

* * *

**

"I am severely disappointed in you" came the harsh comment from a heavily cloaked man. On his face, in a perfect mould, as though it was made particularly for his face, was a mask of hard metal, which only increased the man's level of intimidation. The man that lay on the ground from being struck violently shuddered at the sound of the voice.

"But…the three have not yet returned yet!" the man insisted, "Although…they might just be running late!"

"It is no use trying to make excuses; I imagine they had died in their attempt"

"Lord Xun –"

"Do not speak my name while you are down there, drenched in failure. You were the ones to give them the orders to go…"

"As you requested…"

"You underestimated the two and overestimated your three" Xun growled, "And that, you damn fool, not only got us _neither_ of the girls, but will have them wary now, and if that were not enough, _two_ of the seishi have been awoken!" he paused, "Although it is quite thankful that they do not have their past memories…or they'd know the true extent of their powers…"

The man shuddered, "My apologies" he said quickly, "But surely one of us could – "

"You think one of you could do it?" Xun sneered, "If the rest of you lords are as incompetent as _you_…I highly doubt any of you will live past your next birth days"

"Milord! Us Lords are second-in-power only to you and we have the means to accomplish the task"

Xun stared at the man, contemplating, "Very well Liu" he said after a moment's thought.

Liu bowed, "I will get them on it straight away"

* * *

Haku stared in disbelief at the sight before him. His four bandits of insanity who usually never had any trouble with opponents were covered with scrapes, bruises and injuries of all shapes and sizes.

Yui was dumbfounded, "What happened to you?"

Haku could only nod dumbly at her question, waiting for the answer.

Kristen looked at Yui with traumatized eyes, "It was horrible Yui!" she said, her voice choked.

"What is it?" Yui asked, wondering what had scared her two charges so much.

Kouji patted each of them on the back reassuringly, all the while trying to get the 'I-just-witnessed-something-I-never-want-to-see-again' look off his face. It was unsuccessful…and Tasuki? He could not contain the contents of his stomach anymore and had ran inside for the nearest bucket, which was always available in the main room due to the drunkenness that occurred often.

"Aniki!" Seiriko yelled suddenly. Haku looked at her oddly for calling either one of the two boys 'brother', but he should have realized that the two girls would have gotten such a friendship with the two boys after _this_ much time. The four of them had been gone longer than Haku had intended; an entire three months. They must have been having fun, he surmised, "Kristen!" Seiriko continued, clutching her head, "I can still see _them_!"

Kristen rushed over, shaking her friend by the shoulders, "NO! Seiriko! Purge the vile thoughts from your mind! You can do it!"

Seiriko suddenly whimpered, "I can't! It's too…" she interrupted herself when she grabbed a full bottle of sake from the horse's – which she was currently sitting on – saddle and hit herself over the head – hard – with it, knocking herself unconscious, as an attempt to save her from the 'vile thoughts'. She dropped to the ground and Haku raised an eyebrow, "What was so bad?"

"Haku! We saw the most horrible thing ever!" Kouji wailed, very unlike his usual attitude, "It's too horrible…"

"…must…not…think…of…" Kristen muttered to herself, hugging herself as she rocked back and forth. Yui was distinctly reminded of a mental ward.

"Uh…let's get you inside, shall we?" Yui suggested. Kristen nodded numbly and the horse that Seiriko had collapsed her, to Haku's utter surprise, walked into the base and led the girl's unconscious body back to the room that the three female bandits shared.

"Need…some kind of…amnesia" Tasuki muttered as he came back, still clutching a now newly empty and clean bucket just in case such thought came up again.

Yui and Haku exchanged looks of confusion, but alas, the young ones went off to bed, following Seiriko's example of using the bliss sanctuary of unconsciousness to forget what they had just seen. Unfortunately, sleep could only last so long…

However, to the two adults' surprise, the four of them managed to sleep for a long time, which made them wonder if they had slept at all during the trip back here, which could sometimes taken as long as a week or more– on horseback, due to the mountain's unpredictable conditions.

Two days after the group arrived, there was a knock on the bandit base door and the guards were found unconscious by the next round of guards, causing a base-wide search to be ordered. However, no possible perpetrator was found, and nobody dared enter the insane bandits' room. In fact, even Yui refused to anymore; Haku had even gone as far as to move his belongings into a secret room and give Kouji and Genrou _his_ room so that Yui could move into one of _their_ rooms to help keep everyone sane around here.

"I'm afraid there's only one solution then…" Haku said morosely.

"Yeh…I know…" one of the bandits said sadly. He had imagined once about living a healthy long life, get rich off bandit loot and to go back to his wife and child healthy and…well, in one piece, but it seemed that was not to be. He sighed, "I am resigned to my fate"

The bandits that Haku had recruited to joining him in this deadly mission all nodded in the same resigned fashion.

"Then you know…you will be doing a great deed to mankind; a true show of bravery…and…" Haku sighed, "Now, we must journey into..." he could not bring himself to say the words.

One of the bandits nodded, "It's okay Boss; we get it..."

Haku sighed and with him leading one group and Yui leading the other, each group entered either Seiriko and Kristen's, or Kouji and Tasuki's room, with much trepidation in their steps.

In Kristen's and Seiriko's room, they found a bunch of weapons and a few drawings on some very white and straight paper, that was unlike the scrolls and scraps of parchment normally used. Then there were other things such as a weird device that was currently blasting out strange noise and words and a pad of papers connected by wire spirals that they saw contained foreign writing, which somehow, began to translate itself in front of their eyes; magic, they presumed: Plans to Break Out of the Asylum by Seiriko (and Kristen who draws the plans). There was also another set of papers, labelled: How to Get Genrou – here, there had been an arrow leading up with the word, Tasuki written above it – to Shut Up.

"So…this is what they do with their spare time…?" one bandit asked, "Figuring out ways to get Genrou to shut up?"

Yui who was leading this particular group, looked thoughtful. So they had figured out that Genrou was Tasuki. Good; less work on her part.

"Hey, I found something" Haku said, whispering as he walked into the room, "I found our intruder"

Yui and the rest of the bandits quickly left the girls' room and into Genrou's and Kouji's room, where they found a boy no less than thirteen years of age, sitting on Tasuki's stomach, poking at the fanged man – well, he could still be considered a boy if talking to Kristen or Seiriko since he was still seventeen – and grinning at the threatening glare he got.

"Get off me!" Genrou shouted, causing Kouji to stir lightly.

"Let me think on that…nope!"

"You've been hanging around Kristen and Seiriko too much Doukun"

Yui gasped suddenly, realizing why this boy looked familiar. Flashbacks of a temple and the death of a boy who looked exactly like this one ran through her head and she could not help but choke out, "C-Chiriko?"

The boy turned to her, startled, "Oh; you must be Yui" he said, "And you are correct; I am Chiriko"

Haku was confused. That was the name of one of the warriors of legend but…that could not be, right? The gods were dead…and they had…Enma now…but yet, Haku could not shake off the feeling that this really was Chiriko…

"How'd you get in here, past our guards?" one of the bandits asked.

"It was simple, really. You really should teach them more words; a few random big words thrown out there got them confused, giving me time to use the knowledge that these four taught me in the past three months and knock them out" he replied calmly.

"Sorry Boss…" Genrou said sheepishly, "This is my brother; Kristen's been corrupting him with devilish plans"

"And Seiriko's been trying to turn him to think with insanity rather than logic" Kouji added, feeling that this was a good time to announce that he was awake.

"When do they not?" Haku said with grim amusement, "Well, now that you two are awake, perhaps you can help us wake the other two up"

"They're already awake" all three chorused at once. As if on cue, there was an enraged shout from the next room, "NO NO NO SEIRIKO! TO BREAK OUT OF AN ASYLUM, WE MUST THINK _LOGICALLY_ INSTEAD OF THE WAY WE USUALLY DO BECAUSE THEY'D _ASSUME_ THAT WE'D THINK INSANELY!"

"How do you do that?" Haku asked, incredulously.

"Well" Yui began to answer, "Genrou's Tasuki, Doukun's Chiriko, those two girls were chosen by the Four Gods, and I assume Kouji has something to do with gods or he wouldn't be here again, like Tasuki and Chiriko. So basically, they all have a connection with the Gods and somehow, forged a connection between themselves…"

"What kind of connection?" Haku asked suspiciously, "And how do you know all this?"

"Well, it's like the connection that twins have. They can't really read the other's mind, but they can kinda sense the others' feelings, thoughts, presence that type of thing, and I know because I used to be the Priestess of Seiryuu. I've been thinking a lot on this since they've been gone, and since Taiitsu-kun hasn't popped up to tell me I'm an idiot like she did the first time I tried figuring this out, I'm assuming I'm right"

Haku looked at her, the shock settled in finally, "You mean…Genrou, that kid there – Douko or whatever his name is – and possibly Kouji, are seishi, and the gods aren't really dead!"

"Nope" Yui grinned.

There were more shouts now, "GENROU! STOP MESSING WITH THE BLUEPRINTS! WE MIGHT NEED THOSE LATER ON!"

"BUT THERE'S NOT ENOUGH FIRE!"

"THE ASYLUM ISN'T GOING TO BE ON FIRE 24/7!"

"It's not?"

"NO!"

"WHY THE HELL NOT!"

"Because then we'd all be DEAD!"

"WILL NOT!"

"WILL TOO!"

"WILL NOT!"

"WILL TOO!"

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!" that voice was definitely the kid's voice, and to Haku's surprise, he had a very stern and authoritative voice…kind of like…Haku paled, remembering the tone of voice the tutor his father had hired had used.

Chiriko continued, "And Kouji, stop drawing on the floor and Seiriko – "

"Yesssssss?" there it was. The voice chalk full of innocence, and there were surely puppy dog eyes.

"Get back onto the ground immediately!" he said, "Just because you and Kristen figured out some of your powers doesn't mean you can go around climbing walls using your stupid ice"

"It's not just ice…it's fire…that's cold!" Seiriko insisted, obviously in denial and wanting fire for herself, "…and…fine! It's ice!"

"Oh yeah…I forgot! FIRE!" Kristen suddenly shouted and Yui began to worry about the state of the room.

"WHAT THE HELL! STOP DOING THAT!" Genrou shouted just as the two adults (the bandits had long run away) walked in, to see that Tasuki had just barely dodged a blast of fire, and judging from the way Kristen's fire looked, it was incredibly, unfathomably blazing-inferno hot.

"I don't understand you –" Chiriko suddenly wailed, floating up himself to her eye level, "Taiitsu-kun gives us the power of being able to defy gravity just by thinking about it (although it was probably so Shun'u would stop trying to fly) and what do you do? You use _ice_ to climb walls instead of just using your hands!"

"But it's not really climbing" Seiriko pointed out.

Haku coughed suddenly and the five looked up and grinned sheepishly at the bandit leader, "Hey Haku"

"Have a good rest?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"…yep…"

"Now, care to tell us what happened to make you knock yourselves out for two days?" Yui asked.

"Well…"

"It started normally…"

"We were going back here with the promise from Doukun here that he'd come after us after he took his final exam"

"So we journeyed…peacefully…well, kinda peacefully…"

"We were talking about how you guys probably died from lack of sanity…"

"…when we saw this huge disgusting thing in the distance and it was _headed straight for us!_" Genrou wailed.

"And it was so huge and round that we couldn't escape it and as it came toward us, we were run over by its immense fat"

"We were so traumatized"

"Thankfully it kept rolling on…"

"We went to the river to try to clean the wounds left by it trampling us with its rolling…it really hurt y'know…"

"But we still had bruises"

"And that's when it came back…yelling for us…"

"We tried running but just as we were about to be trampled again…"

"Taiitsu-kun came and gave us the powers to defy gravity and all that…aka…fly" Tasuki said with a maniacal gleam in his eye once the word 'fly' was mentioned.

"And we escaped it with that…"

"And flew here…"

Yui stared and then shuddered in revulsion, "Was it Miaka?"

Instantly, four sets of weapons, on in each hand was turned on her; and a total of twenty daggers whizzed by her ear. She gave an eep at the murderous expression – and at the weapons pointed at her.

"Don't" Seiriko hissed.

"Say" Kristen glared her deadliest death glare.

"Its" Tasuki growled.

"Name" Kouji said through gritted teeth.

"Where was Taka then?" Yui wondered.

"I think he wandered into our village" Chiriko pondered, "He saw me and tried to _hug_ me or whatever people like him do and Aidou attacked him with a log, Kiang dressed him up in dresses, Pa'Liu fed some of her stew to him and Li'an threw him into the lake"

Yui whistled appreciatively, "Nice…"

"And then they sacrificed him" Chiriko added.

Yui's eyes bulged, "What?"

"Oh yes, as an offering of peace to those horrid demons that live near us, they gave him to them and they could keep him as long as they want _if_ they promised to never attack our town"

Seiriko and Kristen grinned, exchanging looks, "That wouldn't happen to be _your_ idea, would it?" Kouji asked.

Chiriko blushed, looking down at his feet.

* * *

"Well, we have to leave soon" Tasuki said to Haku at dinner that night, "We have to look for the seishi; somebody's already onto us being alive and we have to hurry"

"Alright" Haku said after a moment's thought, "You can come back here should you need to…" he said, knowing despite what he said, how much he would miss these four, especially Kouji and Genrou since he knew them longest.

"We will"

"Yui, you should stay here; I don't think you're up for walking and travelling that much" Seiriko said wisely.

"And you are?" Yui asked, insulted.

"We can float, aka, fly, and we've been travelling up and down the mountain for our journey there and back" Kristen pointed out, "Also, it'd be strange to have a group of teenagers and then a middle-aged woman with us when most women your age around here stay at home"

Yui frowned, "And what about you?"

A brief look was exchanged.

"We already act like siblings; we can just say our parents died so we're travelling across the country to live with our aunt or something" Kouji shrugged, "It's not uncommon around here these days…especially after that civil war and the sickness that came with the war"

"Alright" Yui finally conceded, although she was not very happy about it. She handed a black satin pouch with blue, green, silver and red trimmings to Kouji, "Take this"

Kouji took it, "What is it?"

"Something Taiitsu-kun gave me. She must have expected this because she told me to give it to you. It holds the special weapons that the past seishi have used. Tasuki's should be in there and for those that had no weapons, she added some in, just for them" she added, remembering that Mitsukake and Chiriko had no way to defend themselves last time.

Tasuki took it from Kouji's hands and dug into the bag. He reached around into the seemingly bottomless pouch and when he finally got something, he took it out, revealing a shiny, diamond fan. He stared at it incredulously, "Tessen…" he said, the word just coming instinctively out of his mouth. Almost as if guided by something, he waved the tessen and said two words, "Rekka Shinen!"

A wave of fire burst out from the fan and a few bandits got mildly singed. Kristen stared at the bandit, "Fire…out of a fan!" she gaped, then grinned, "Fire!"

Chiriko got the pouch next. He reached in and took as long as Tasuki had done to find his weapon. He finally came out with a rapier, perfect for his smaller than average size.

"Whoa…" Chiriko breathed, gazing at the weapon, which was glowing with red light, "I don't think the past Chiriko had this…" he said, "I don't even vaguely recognize it…or maybe he did and – " he looked frustrated at the lack of memories of his past life.

"It's alright; you'll find out" Yui turned a sharp gaze at the two girls, "NO, you don't get anymore weapons….oh wait…or maybe you do…" she shrugged, handing _them_ a bag also, "Taiitsu-kun said that the items in here will help you"

Incredulous, the girls reached in at the same time (since both of them had been battling over who got it first) and first, pulled two almost identical necklaces, a pure white crystal in the shape of a sharpened cylinder.

"Geez…" Seiriko muttered, "I'll start feeling invincible soon; because _surely_, I can defeat everyone with necklaces" she eyed her critically at an arm's length. She paused, "Are you sure Taiitsu-kun won't make it explode while I'm wearing it?"

"She left no other explanation except that these will help you" Yui shrugged as the bag disappeared into thin air.

"Oh…goody" Kristen grimaced, "We can surely defeat _everyone_ with two crystals"

Yui grinned, "Well, we all know Taiitsu-kun always knows what she's talking about…"

"Anything else, Oracle of Taiitsu-kun?" Seiriko asked sarcastically.

"Actually…yeah; she said to warn you that demons and creatures that haven't been seen since the time Tenkou arrived have appeared. They're not all that strong, but they are still hard to beat" Yui warned, "So be careful"

"Sometimes I wonder if I'm talking to my mother here…" she trailed off suddenly. Then she yawned suddenly, "Well, I suppose we should get to sleep if we plan to set off in the morning"

Haku nodded, having been silent during this entire talk, "Like I said, you're welcome back here…" he paused, "Just not _too_ often, alright?"

"Right, Boss; next time you see us, we'll bring a whole group of seishi-turned-into-outlaws to see you!" Kristen grinned.

Haku groaned, "Are you sure those Gods are sane?" he asked Yui, who shrugged, "Seiryuu looked sane to me…"

All five of them grinned, "We'll have to fix _that_ won't we?"

* * *

(hums circus music)


	10. The Star and the Willow

No author's note or reader's response this time 'cause I'm too damn tired to do anything but post it. Read and enjoy.

* * *

Kristen glared threateningly at the innkeeper, who just _had_ to ask where the five teenagers were from and why they were travelling in a group like that. Not for the first time that week – no, that _night_, Kristen and Seiriko had been forced to adopt perfectly angelic and gullible expressions and step behind the boys to further their image of three brothers and two sisters and since most girls (excluding Tasuki and Chiriko's sisters) were typically very timid in this world, they had been forced to act as such.

Once getting to their room, Seiriko landed on her bed, face down and used the pillow to stifle a scream of frustration. When she was done, she looked up and saw that the males were looking with amusement as Kristen was screaming into her pillow.

Kouji raised an eyebrow, "I know you hate it, but I didn't think it was _that_ bad?"

"Let's see you get leered at by some old perverted man and not punch him!" Kristen snarled, "That happened _fifteen times _to me already!"

Tasuki winced at the glare from the silent Seiriko, which indicated that she had also had an urge to punch someone, possibly from one of the perverted men Kristen talked about. Tasuki coughed, "Er…well…"

Seiriko floated up from the bed and lay on thin air, "Next time, if we don't get to act as ourselves as girls, _I'm _going as a guy" she told them firmly, leaving no room for arguing. Kristen pondered this, "Same here" she finally conceded.

"How would you disguise yourselves like that?" Kouji asked incredulously.

"We'll manage" Kristen waved it off, "But that's only a last resort" she glared pointedly.

Chiriko sighed, "Fine…you don't have to act like timid girls"

"THANK YOU!" Seiriko jumped and cheered, then, as if forgetting she had been floating, fell onto the bed with a large _thump_. She scowled at the laughter that followed the fall, "I'll kill you" she muttered.

"I'll kill you first"

"Not if I kill you first"

"…let's not get into this again…" Kouji interrupted, "Knowing you, it'll last the entire night"

"He's catching on" Seiriko muttered to Kristen.

"What do we do?" Kristen muttered back.

"Quick; into the air!"

Both girls floated, laughing insanely as they did so and the three teenage boys rolled their eyes simultaneously at the two.

Suddenly, Kristen noticed something…

"Fang boy" she suddenly said, "What are you three doing in our room?"

Tasuki shot her a fanged grin, "What do you mean _your_ room? You didn't really expect us to leave you alone with those psychotic people waiting to kidnap you, did you?"

"Actually…yes"

"Think again" Tasuki told her, "It's either we share a large room…or we camp out in the forest"

Kristen gave it a moment's thought before jumping onto the bed that was not occupied by Seiriko and sprawled herself on it, leaving no room on the thin bed should the three boys decide to get ideas and made her and Seiriko share beds. She was not giving up her only chance for a good night's sleep in a bed _all to herself_ just because the boys were feeling overly protective.

Tasuki scowled, "Move" he ordered.

"No"

"Kristen!"

"You'll have to sleep on the ground!"

"MOVE!"

"NO!"

"WHY NOT!"

"Because."

"MOVE!"

"I WON'T!"

Seiriko was giving Kouji the same problems, although in a different way. She was grinning maniacally up at him as he tried to bodily remove her from the bed, but was unsuccessful due to her using her powers to create a practically invisible barrier of ice every time he came near.

"Seiriko!" Chiriko whined, "Get off…"

"No way"

"Please?"

"No"

"Why?"

"Because it's comfy…besides, it's _your_ fault for not getting a separate room. If you want to stay in the same room as us, you'll have to pay the consequences"

"Why are you two being so difficult?"

The two girls exchanged a look before answering together, "Revenge"

"What?" Chiriko balked, "For what?"

"Making us sleep outside"

"Making us act like 'ladies'"

"Taking away my shiny!" Seiriko glared at Tasuki.

The boys groaned, knowing that no way in hell would they ever win this argument; there was just too many excuses the girls could come up with. Kouji suddenly looked at the two beds, "…well, we could always just see if Taiitsu-kun can pop a few beds in here for us…" he suggested, "If she comes that is…"

Before he even finished that sentence, three beds appeared, and to the five's horror, pink in colour. Kristen and Seiriko screamed before diving under their covers for the safety of…well, their covers. Tasuki, Chiriko and Kouji eyed it tentatively before just shrugging and jumping on the bed.

Kristen suddenly shot back up and with a flick of her head, created a wall of fire between their beds and the boys' beds, "If you even _think_ of waking us up early tomorrow, you'll pay by being fried to death" she warned.

Tasuki glared.

Kouji shrugged.

Chiriko sighed.

Seiriko…was asleep.

* * *

"Are you sure?" came a whisper from the shadows of the trees.

"Dead sure…"

A shudder was heard, "Don't say that"

"Yeah…" a fourth voice agreed, "It's not…"

"Don't tell me you believe two measly girls will defeat us – they're asleep for Enma's sake!"

"So, Liu told the Council of Lords that one of the girls wasn't even trying when she killed the first assassin sent after them; they found his body…a knife wound, right through the heart"

"Shut up; you're such a coward. I don't even know why you're one of us. Nobody else is scared"

"I can't help it…"

"Toughen up idiot"

"Shut up you two and let's go"

The inn loomed in front of them and they quietly snuck in through the back door and up the creaky staircases to where the rooms were. Upon reaching room twenty-nine, the four figures dressed all in black crept into the room, barely escaping being burned by a strange line of fire. They quickly went over to where the two girls were sleeping, which was easily recognizable as the side that did not snore – or at least, if they did, their snores could not be heard over the seishi's – for that was the obvious identity of the three – snores.

Two figures went to each girl and while one made sure the girl could not move, the other clamped a hand over the girl's mouth and then quick as lightning, gagged them, leading to the opinion that these were not just ordinary men, but expert kidnappers – either that, or they had children at home.

Then, just as quick as the gags were put on place, the four figures disappeared from the room, leaving not a single trace that anyone had been there at all.

So, that was what the boys had woken up to the next morning, when realizing that the girls were gone and the fire had been brought down, typically when Kristen no longer willed it to be there and knowing Kristen and Seiriko, they would never get up this early in the morning _willingly_, so that left them to the conclusion that…

* * *

"Captured" Kristen muttered angrily, "Captured from our beds and now held captive in this place!"

She shot a scathing look at Seiriko who had her eyes closed, and for some odd reason, looked calm, "And you're just sitting there, doing nothing!" she shouted angrily.

"I'm trying to concoct a plan to escape" Seiriko answered, "But nothing seems like it'll work"

"That's 'cause we're trapped in a glowing purple sphere made of magic!" Kristen shouted indignantly, "Or at least I _think_ it's magic" she growled, glaring at the sphere as if threatening it to disagree with her opinion that it was magic.

"True…but…" Seiriko sighed in frustration, "Alright, okay, it's no use…and the others don't even know where we are!"

"ARGH!" Kristen shouted, kicking the sphere, only to be hurled backwards upon trying to inflict harm on it.

"Death…upon you all" Seiriko muttered to herself, now looking murderous at the lack of escape, glaring solely at the person guarding them, although there was really no need.

"Patience" said the man, "Lord Liu will be here soon"

"Yeah, you can stick your patience up your ass" Kristen retorted. Seiriko glared at the man, "And I suppose we're supposed to bow to this idiot, or something?"

"That's the general idea upon meeting a lord, yes"

"Don't count on it"

"He will punish you"

"THE FACT THAT I CAN'T RUN AROUND IS PUNISHMENT ENOUGH!" suddenly, Kristen knew why she had been so quiet; deprived of the freedom to walk around or to do as she pleased wherever, Seiriko had become frustrated, which led to being quiet, and a quiet Seiriko was a dangerous-pissed off Seiriko, as was proven by the crackling of ice surrounding the girl's angry form.

"TELL YOUR DAMN LORD THAT UNLESS HE LETS ME OUT, I'M GONNA MAKE YOU ALL GO INSANE!"

"What can you possibly do?" the man scoffed, underestimating the power of an enraged teenage girl. Especially an insane and violent one…and when there were two insane, violent and enraged teenage girls…

Seiriko opened her mouth and Kristen grimaced. She knew it…

"Do di do do do do di di do do…"

The circus song.

And then, "…song that never ends; it just goes on and on my friends…"

"…bottles of beer on the wall…"

"…little lamb, little lamb, little lamb"

_Well, _Kristen thought to herself, trying to be optimistic, _At least she doesn't sound like a dying cat when singing kid songs_...

"…fa la la la la la la la"

"…a pirate's life for me…"

"ALRIGHT! STOP IT! STOP IT!" the man sobbed, "No more…no…more!"

"Let us out then" Seiriko told him.

"I can't – "

"This is the song that never ends; it just goes on and on – "

"STOP! I-I'll go talk to the Lord…" he said, quickly retreating.

Kristen turned to Seiriko, "Well, at least you were in tune this time" she commented.

Seiriko shrugged, "These songs are easier…"

"And more annoying, right?"

Seiriko nodded, "If he doesn't come back in and let me out, I'm going to start singing REALLY loud!"

"How long until then…?" Kristen asked, grinning.

"…ten seconds" Seiriko decided, "Let's see how desperate he really is"

"Evil" Kristen told her, "Pure evil"

"You're one to talk" Seiriko retorted.

"Shut up…three seconds"

"Well you are evil"

"one second"

One second passed and then…

"…came to town, riding on a donkey…!"

"You're extremely evil"

"Do di do do di di do di do do!"

From the hallway, they heard a, "Hurry Lord Liu; I can hear the singing!" came the horrified scream.

"…song that NEVER ENDS!"

The door slammed open and a important looking man walked in – or at least, he would have looked important if he were not panting from running, red faced and looking around wildly. Seiriko smiled sweetly at the lord, "About time"

Liu had never realized exactly how evil one person could be until…

_Song that never ends…_

Oh no…it was in his head now…

"Let us out" Seiriko ordered.

Liu, while he did value his sanity, valued his life even more and should he let these two out, he knew very well what the master would do to him. So he did it…he shook his head and said, "No…"

Seiriko glowered and then opened her mouth, as if preparing to launch into song again. Then there was a scream of fear before both men took off running. Kristen raised an eyebrow at Seiriko, "Think it'll work on Taka?" she wondered.

"…possibly…" Seiriko looked pensive, "But I wouldn't want to risk getting near him…"

"Too true"

"There's a problem now…" Seiriko said suddenly.

"Yes?"

"…we're stuck in here…"

"Yes?"

"Liu just ran away…"

"Yes…"

"So no one's here to let us out…"

"…shit!"

"Crap"

"Fuck"

"Damn"

"Hey…your necklace is glowing" Seiriko pointed out suddenly, noticing the bright red aura emanating from the crystal and the symbol suddenly inscribed on, a weird shape that was unlike any of the Chinese characters she had seen.

"Hm…so it is…"

Suddenly, they heard voices from outside the room and before either could wonder if Liu was back again, two men walked in. They were probably still in their late teens; both were around the same height, although there were major differences in appearance.

One had long dark haired tied loosely and his face lightly tanned, as though he had spent more time in shadows and confined within buildings than out in the sun. He was dressed in a cloak of dark red which had its hood lowered. A sword hung from his belt, sheathed and there was a multitude of weapons on the man; what caught their attention the most was his face itself, which had a majestic beauty found only in aristocrats and drew attention to incredible golden eyes.

His companion looked also to be of noble birth; he himself was wearing a cloak of dark green, the hood still up but the girls could see traces of pale skin and the glint of rose coloured eyes. He had no specific weapon on him – in plain sight that is, but he seemed to be capable of fighting should the need arise.

"Oh, look what we have here, Ryuuen" said the first man, "Two lovely young girls, and one is even emanating the light of Suzaku"

"I don't know, Saihitei…they could be from Liu and his fellow lords" the comment was said with an undertone of amusement and mischief.

"Come now…and to what purpose would driving Liu away from his base screaming bring?"

"…I'd do it just to see him scream"

"Yes…it is quite amusing, isn't it?"

The two men laughed and then turned their attention back to the gaping two girls, "Hello" the first man greeted, "I am Saihitei, but…" he shrugged suddenly and pulled down the collar of his cloak, which revealed a glowing red rune: star. Hotohori. Kristen clapped her hands together joyfully; a seishi!

"I am Ryuuen" the second man said, pulling down his hood to reveal his features: violet hair that reached his shoulders and a definite aristocratic face like Hotohori's. He pulled down the neckline of the shirt that he wore under the cloak and revealed a second glowing rune: willow. Nuriko.

Kristen grinned and Seiriko poked her, "Two seishi!" she said excitedly.

"I know" Kristen nodded.

"Now, while you tell me how you got trapped into that magic prison…we will let you out" Hotohori said, smiling kindly.

"Thank you!" Kristen said happily.

They watched as Hotohori was suddenly bathed in a sphere of red light that looked warm and protecting, unlike the way the purple sphere they were trapped in felt, and watched as the purple sphere broke when the red light made contact. They were too shocked at this display to really notice they were falling…until they noticed that each of them had landed on the shoulders of Nuriko, who really did not seem to mind…as if a feather had landed instead of two sixteen year old girls.

Nuriko shot them a grin, "Well, now…tell us about what you two so ingeniously did to that bastard Liu"

Seiriko grinned back and Kristen quickly got off the shoulder of Nuriko, who just kept grinning as the story of Liu's insanity progressed and did not even seem to mind that he was walking out of the base with Seiriko still perched on his shoulder. Of course, he explained later that he had super strength so that explained it. Kristen was happy though; two more seishi! She looked at Hotohori. Good looking seishi.

* * *

(yawns) damn walking all day in the sun. Fun though. Amusement parks are always fun.


	11. Two plus two makes four

**Reader's Response:**

**kasumi takemoto: **Yep; of course I remember you. I missed your reviews. _(puts on a sad face)_ Oh, I changed it 'cause…I dunno…I just felt like changing it. And since everyone was calling me insane around that time, it turned out to be something about insanity. _(shrugs and grins)_ Yes. I agree. Kristen is very right.

**notquiteagoddess: **_(gasps)_ I would NEVER kill Nuriko off…unless of course, he miraculously survives and becomes a walking medical miracle or something like that 'cause Nuriko is AMAZING! And erm…well, answering your question about her expecting them to be ugly…well, the only 'seishi' she's actually met is Taka and I imagined that in his mid thirties and with his money obsessing ways, he's not exactly appealing in terms of looks. And yeah, I did go to the amusement park; we went to Toronto for a few days so we went to Wonderland and it was SO MUCH FUN! _(shudders_) Dentist…I don't like going to the dentist.

**Kyae Sohma: **I'm sorry. You, along with the rest of my friends, get the right to brutally maim me for the torture I have bestowed upon you by making this chapter and thus getting the song that never ends stuck in your head. I'm glad you liked the chapter though. I know I did. Who wouldn't like a chapter with NURIKO AND HOTOHORI!

_(looks up from studying for driver's test)_ Enjoy the chapter! (for some reason, the ordinary dividers that ffnet provides doesn't work this time, so i'll be using whatever actually shows up, such as the one displayed right under this message...)

e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y.

"I don't understand…" Tasuki muttered, doing a very good impression of a monkey and scratching his head, "How did we not hear anyone come in?" he wondered, still feeling very confused about the fact that the girls were kidnapped.

Chiriko nodded, "We would have at least heard creaking noises; these floors are not exactly made of stone" he muttered, "The floorboards creak just like the boards at home"

"So then…"

"Maybe they were trained to be silent?" Kouji suggested, "And we couldn't hear anything because of that barrier put up to keep us out"

Tasuki cursed, "Stupid girl" he muttered.

"Don't say that in front of her" Chiriko warned.

Tasuki shuddered, "I won't…"

"so where do you think they could be?" Kouji asked.

"I dunno…we can't do that mind thingy unless they're right in the same area as us" Tasuki grumbled, "So that won't work"

"The stars have said nothing" Chiriko told them, reminding Tasuki of his brother's ability to accurately read the stars.

Kouji just shrugged, "You wanna see if there was a ransom note or something?"

The other two nodded in agreement and crossed over to the girls' side of the room, where their two bags were kept. Tasuki grabbed one and rummaged through it, finding that the bag was exactly like the pouch that had been given to Kouji, seemingly endless in space. Eventually he pulled out a…

He looked at the object strangely. It seemed to be made out of some sort of metal, but yet did not look like completely made of metal and was lighter than most metals were. He looked at it confused, and noticed the strange letters on the inside, and the letters were even _glowing_. ( AN: For those that find my description of it abysmal…it's a cell phone…)

"…what is that?" Chiriko asked curiously.

"I…don't…know…" Tasuki said, still examining the object, "It's so…" he pressed one of the buttons that held the strange letters and was startled when it made a sudden beeping noise. He decided to put whatever it was back but then…

The _thing_ started making strange noises, and was playing some sort of song. Tasuki saw the glowing green strangely shaped thing above the strange letters and pressed it, only to hear…

"_Kristen!"_

To his utter surprise, a voice came from the strange object and he almost dropped it. However, he _did_ scream in fright.

"_Are you there?"_

The three males stared at it in fright.

"_I'll take that as a no…" _there was a long silence and then…there was a clicking sound and then no sound came again but after a few moments, the _thing_ rang again and this time, Chiriko knocked the scary thing out of Tasuki's hand, making it land on the bed. Then they heard the same voice from before speak again.

"_Leaving a message for you. Just wanna tell you that your dad's been looking for you. He's called my house a few times already, so you should call him as soon as you get this…_" there was a sudden pause and then some talking in the background, _"Alright, where the hell are you! Apparently, the phone company just called on the other line and this call is costing too much for it to just be long distance. How the hell did you get out of Canada so quickly? It's only been a few hours since school ended! You're definitely paying me back once you get back!" _

Tasuki relaxed when the strange object stopped talking and he gingerly picked it up and threw it back into the bag. Then he went onto searching into Seiriko's bag; it seemed that he really never did learn. He found another strange object and upon seeing something very similar to the thing from before, he immediately put it back in and went searching around again. He took out something black in color that was in a rectangular shape and he pressed one of the buttons on the side…

e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y.

Far, far away, sitting on a blanket on the ground, Seiriko suddenly twitched. Kristen shot her a weird look, "What?" she asked.

Seiriko's eyes narrowed, "Someone's touching my music" she growled almost protectively. Kristen gasped, horrified that anyone would dare touch the music that was both sacred and precious, "…but who…" she suddenly stopped, "…our bags are still at the inn, aren't they?" she asked. Seiriko nodded but then paused, realization dawning on her, "…Tasuki" she muttered in a dangerous tone.

Watching Seiriko plot painful ways for Tasuki to die, Kristen shook her head with a proud expression on her face, "That poor boy…" she muttered, already thinking what to say for his imminent and soon-to-come eulogy.

After plotting, Seiriko looked wistfully at the fire burning in front of them, "Wish we had marshmallows" she muttered.

"NO!" Kristen suddenly shouted, "No more sugar for _you_!"

Seiriko pouted, glancing at her with puppy-dog eyes full of absolute cuteness which was enhanced even more by the fire reflecting off her red eyes. Kristen twitched. She…had…to……resist.

Of course, that would be when Nuriko and Hotohori came back with more firewood. Hotohori was not sure whether to laugh or roll his eyes at the antics of the two girls. Only half a day with them and he already knew what they were like.

"I'm not even going to comment" Nuriko muttered. Hotohori nodded wisely, "That's a good idea"

e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y.

Somewhere even further away from the two groups, green eyes were staring confused at a phone. She then turned around to her friend who was in the same room and shrugged, "Well, she's not answering her phone either…"

"Both Kristen and Seiriko are missing then?"

"Yeah…and my phone bill is too high to even think about paying for!" Holly scowled, "I'm complaining to the phone company"

Jenna raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that just a _bit _counterproductive? Calling will just add more numbers to your phone bill"

Cursing under her breath, Holly glanced up at the computer screen for a moment. Then she had to blink several times to ensure that she was not dreaming or anything of the sort. She shakily pointed to the screen which was glowing a brilliant light and across the screen in barely seen words were:

_Fushigi Yuugi: The Mysterious Play_

_The Continuation_

_Everlasting Story_

"Weird…" Jenna said aloud, her finger reaching to touch the screen. Holly knocked Jenna's finger away from the screen, "Don't. It could be radioactive or something and kill us all; you wouldn't want to set off a radioactive computer would you!"

Jenna shook her head, "But…wouldn't all those times you probably hit your computer have set it off _before_?"

Silence.

By then, the light had gotten, if possible, brighter and even larger. Now, it surrounded them and made it impossible to escape the room before it got even huger. Then there was one final extremely bright flash of light and for the two girls, all went dark.

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Taiitsu-kun was never a patient woman, nor was she ever surprised by anything, unless of course, you count that time that her Nyan-nyan's attempted to bake her a cake for her ten thousandth birthday, something they had picked up in the other world (why they had been there, Taiitsu-kun had not asked) and instead of the cake tasting sweet and good, the cake tasted…well, squishy and strange. That was the first and last time Taiitsu-kun would ever touch the contraption known as cheese cake.

However, that was many years ago and this was now. She was certainly surprised now, especially since two girls who were dressed in the same weird style as Kristen and Seiriko had appeared on her mountain, unconscious. Despite popular belief, unconscious girls did _not_ fall out of the sky regularly. Whenever they did so, it meant that they had something to do with the Gods. So that was how Taiitsu-kun came to the conclusion that these girls were the other two chosen by the Gods.

What puzzled her was that they had not been due for some time, not until they were halfway through gathering the Seiryuu seishi at least, but here they were and…they were waking up.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" came the scream from one of them, upon waking up and seeing – Taiitsu-kun glared – her.

"Oh, shut up" she snapped for she was very touchy about her face, especially after Hotohori all that many years ago had claimed that he 'could not stand to look at anything so ugly'.

The girl just ignored her and began poking her friend, "Holly…wake up…the world has been taken over ugly monsters and we're looking at the ugliest one…"

Taiitsu-kun's eye twitched as she attempted to rein in her angry outburst.

Holly opened her eyes groggily and looked in the direction that Jenna had pointed at, "…what the fuck?" she mouthed, her eyes wide and scared, "…it _has_ been taken over by ugly monsters!"

"I am NOT a monster!" Taiitsu-kun barked, "I am Taiitsu-kun, creator of this world"

"…a monster world?"

"Ye – NO! No it's _not_ a monster world!" she paused, "You are in a different world. Normally, those like you would be brought in through a book but seeing as none of you seem to go near the library _at all,_ I had to connect the book portal to something that all four of you were subjected to…your computers" That was mostly true at least. Taiitsu-kun was still pondering over the mystery of how these two arrived ahead of schedule.

"Four…of us…are you having vision problems lady?" Holly questioned, "I only see two. Me" she pointed at herself clearly, obviously thinking that Taiitsu-kun was very retarded, "And Jenna" she pointed at the blue haired girl.

Taiitsu-kun sighed in exasperation, "Two arrived before you did" she explained, "And are out doing their mission right now…" she paused, "At least I hope so…knowing them, they've burnt down one or two villages or something…"

"I see…what mission?"

e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y. e.v.e.r.l.a.s.t.i.n.g.s.t.o.r.y.

"Are we there yet?" Seiriko asked.

"No" Hotohori answered.

"Are we – "

"NO!" he answered again, this time cutting Kristen off.

"How long then?"

"As long as it'll take Nuriko to wake up" he pointed to his friend.

"…which is…?"

"Under the wrath of a bucketful of water…one second. Normally…fifteen minutes" Hotohori told them. Both girls groaned, cursing the mode of travel for the twenty-third time that day.

Just as Nuriko woke up, Hotohori announced that they had arrived. The two girls immediately spotted the inn they had stayed in before and hoped that Tasuki had not done _too_ much damage to their bags. Some damage, when involving Tasuki, was inevitable.

Well…what they discovered upon entering their room at the inn was…

Nothing.

Everything, including the pink beds that Taiitsu-kun had popped up for the guys, was gone and the room looked like it did before they had stepped foot into it. Seiriko groaned and buried her face in her hands, "Mussiccc…" she wailed despairingly.

"…they left something behind" Hotohori said, pointing to the bed where there was a strange object, unknown to either him or Nuriko, who was looking perplexed at Seiriko's unexpected mourning about her 'precious music'.

Kristen of course, recognized her cell phone right away and dove for it, not of course, realizing the fact that nobody else was after it in the first place. She held it gingerly, "Well…it _looks _like it's fine" she commented. She turned the phone on and was startled to realize that she had a message. Listening to it, she frowned and then turned to Seiriko, "Didn't Taiitsu-kun say that time passed _way_ slower in the other world?"

Seiriko nodded, "So…we've been here about…five months, right?...but that still doesn't work. Yui said that Miaka had been gone for only a few hours in the other world and here, three months passed"

"Perhaps the world is in more danger than we first thought" Hotohori suggested.

Kristen shrugged, "We should go and ambush her to get answers"

"Or…we look for Tasuki, Chiriko and Kouji and get out bags back!" Seiriko shouted, a maniacal gleam in her eye, "Before my music gets damaged!"

"…" Nuriko stared at her, "…of course, the fact that the world could be in danger holds such little relevance to your music…"

He got two similar looks and shook his head, "Never mind"

Hotohori merely chuckled with amusement.

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"Geez…Taiitsu-kun was right" Holly said to Jenna as they traipsed along the deserted terrain, making sure not to step on the heads of the men they had just beat senseless, "It's like every guy we meet wants to sell us or kill us or something"

Jenna nodded in agreement, "Thank heaven for weapons" she said, glancing admiringly at her own weapon.

"I don't see how we're supposed to find the other two that the old hag mentioned!" Holly exclaimed, "Especially since we're looking for _two_ people in an entire country!"

"At least we get all weapons though!" Jenna, it seemed, as just as excited about the idea of being given weapons as Seiriko had been.

Holly glanced around at the still very much abandoned terrain, hoping to find at least _some_ clue about where the other two were, or maybe even a seishi or two to keep them from getting bored. From what she had heard from Taiitsu-kun, the seishi were very good at aiding in causing trouble and trouble was very fun to cause.

Jenna squinted in the distance and pointed, "Hey…look over there…I see something kinda shiny…" she said, "Are there shiny things in wastelands?"

"Er…" Holly, of course, did not know, seeing as she had never _been_ in a wasteland. The only time she ever saw wastelands were in her geography textbook, which did not really help seeing as the textbook went on and on describing the temperature, rainfall, etc, instead of if there was a possibility of shiny things.

"Never mind; let's go see what it is" Jenna suggested, running off. Upon arriving, Jenna gazed curiously at the object, a bit charred near the end, but she recognized it nonetheless.

"What is it?" Holly asked curiously.

Jenna held it up, "I think it's the stuff we used in science in grade ten…magnesium ribbon or whatever"

"The stuff that exploded?"

"Yeah. That"

"…that was a fun class"

"I know…fire…" Both girls were just a _tad_ obsessed with fire.

"Well, I know that this place isn't advanced enough to make magnesium ribbons yet" Holly mused, "So, that must mean that the other two have been here"

"Yeah, except too bad that we're still in the middle of nowhere!" Jenna pointed out, a bit irritated at the lack of leads and people now.

"Damn Taiitsu-kun"

"I know…I mean, she couldn't have popped us to a town or anything?"

"Bitch"

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning hit the ground next to Holly, who yelped in shock as she jumped away from where the lightning had hit. She and Jenna stared at the charred hole in the ground for a few moments before both of them promised to themselves never to badmouth Taiitsu-kun ever again…out loud anyways.

After agreeing to that, the two girls were at a loss about what to do. There was no town that they could see and that was where they wanted to be, especially since it was going to get dark very soon and they wanted somewhere to sleep where they would not be in fear of being kidnapped in their sleep, or spiders. However, that night, paranoia won over the need for sleep (well, Jenna was already insomniac, so that really did not affect her in the slightest) and they spent the night, traipsing through forests, deadened land the fields before…

"Erm….are you two alright?"

The two girls perked up instantly upon hearing a new voice and looked up. Despite the fact that their feet hurt, they had not had a decent meal in two days and the fact that Holly was dead tired, they looked quite happy to see a stranger.

"…tired…" Holly muttered in a groggy voice.

"..m' too" Jenna yawned; walking around all day did wonders for curing insomnia, it seemed.

Then, they both fell asleep right then and there, leaving the stranger with two girls asleep, in the middle of…somewhere.


	12. Mitsukake to the rescue

I have finally decided to update...aren't you all happy? (smiles sheepishly) sorry it took so long. I was…busy…

**caspercat22: **Oh don't worry. She won't hurt Tasuki too much…as long as, of course, she gets her music back in tact. But by the time they meet up again, they'll have much more serious things on their minds (at that moment anyways)…

**Kyae Sohma:** If you're talking about the two just appeared girls, no, they're not. Each one of the four are for each of the four gods, so…I'm sure you can figure it out. And um…I'm actually not really looking for anyone to be in _this_ particular story, but if I'm in need of another character, I'll contact you alright?

Enjoy! (again, the stupid divider line thing is NOT working...so...)

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To most people in Konan, the sunlight was a welcome sign; a sign of perhaps good harvest and the sign that their god, Enma, was perhaps happy with them that fine, fine day. Unfortunately, a handful of people did not share that same opinion, for as soon as the ray of sunlight hit her face, a blue haired girl muttered a snappish, "I hate you" to the sun, who thankfully was not a living and breathing sentient or else Jenna would have been fried to ashes for saying that to the sun.

Then there was an indignant exclamation of, "I haven't done anything!" from somewhere across the room. Too tired to check who it was, Jenna burrowed herself deep under the covers, "Stupid sun"

The person in the room laughed loudly at this, causing Jenna to snap her eyes open. Now, if she remembered correctly, she had been sucked into this strange world by Holly's computer and if she remembered even more of what happened since falling into a hell of pink bubbles and overly happy children, she would realize that there was no way that either Taiitsu-kun or Holly would sound like a guy. So, therefore…

"ARGH!" she screamed, wondering if she and Holly had been caught sleeping the previous night and now had been sold to some perverted old man… or maybe they ended up – she shuddered just thinking about it and finally risked opening her eyes.

To her relief, however, she found that the person in the room was _not_ a perverted old man; in fact, he looked only a few years older than she was, which could either be a good sign or a bad sign, if you thought about it. He had dark blue hair that was neatly tied back and he looked back at her with dark green eyes

Holly, awoken by Jenna's scream, sat up groggily, "Where are we?" she muttered, rubbing her eyes and looking around, wincing at the sun's bright glare so very early in the morning, "And why are we up at this ungodly hour?"

"Actually" the blue haired man said with amusement, "It is currently noon"

"Oh…" she shook her head of the dazed drowsiness, "…who are you?"

"I am Hikou" the man smiled, "And who might you two be; both of you collapsed in the forest late last night while I was getting back from the capital"

"…so you're _not_ selling us?" Jenna asked cautiously.

"Absolutely not!" Hikou looked insulted at the insinuation.

"Good" Jenna sighed in relief, "You don't know _how_ many people have tried to do that! So far there's been twelve _groups_ of them, and we've only been here a few days!"

Hikou winced, "And how are you two still walking around, may I ask?"

"…weapon…" Jenna said quietly with awe seeping into her voice as she cradled the ever-so-loved glaive in her arms. Hikou had to work hard not to wince at the sight of the weapon; if a normal glaive was scary to the opponent of the weapon's wielder, then this glaive would give them traumatized nightmares, for the end of the rod did not end out in a smooth edge like normal glaives did. In fact, the end had been carved so that it was jagged and with the metal used for the rod, could probably do just as much damage as the blade at the top, if not more. He hoped he would never have to go against such a weapon.

"Yes…anyways" he coughed, "Are you feeling alright now?"

Holly nodded, "Sleep is wonderful" she declared.

"So, is it safe to let you out into the world or would you like to stay in town for the time being?" Hikou asked.

Holly and Jenna exchanged looks and began whispering quietly and arguing slightly about what they should do, "I think we should just leave. There's really no point in staying" Jenna said.

"Yeah, but maybe if we stay in this town long enough, one of the people we're looking for might show up"

"True, but – "

"Besides…we'd just get lost if we ended up by ourselves again"

"True" Jenna said, "Alright. We'll stay"

Holly grinned, "Besides, this means no more meeting of perverted men trying to sell us…what the hell is their problem anyways?"

"Don't forget; kings in ancient times allowed polygamy" Jenna reminded her.

"That's NO excuse!"

"…actually, yes it is…"

"Oh…"

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"Oh, wait 'till I get my fucking hands on you, you stupid waste of nature!" came an enraged shout from one of the rooms of the fancy building that was currently occupied by two girls and two men who had arrived in town late last night. The building itself belonged to the two men; it was their 'base' as they called it for they were quite able to make a very decent pay.

"_Alright, but what do you guys do?" Kristen asked curiously, looking around the fancy mansion, "Whatever you do, you must be paid a lot"_

_Nuriko shrugged, "We basically do anything…as long as it's something with fighting, I suppose; like when we broke into Liu's base. We also have connections to pirates, bandits, all the outlaws and sometimes, we get a…special job or two. Most of the work we do have something to do with overthrowing the corrupt emperor and his government or getting rid of…unsavoury characters"_

"_Oh cool!" Seiriko said, eyes wide, "Does special job mean assassination?" she asked eagerly, wondering if one could get paid for killing people off in ancient China._

_Hotohori looked taken back and stared at her suspiciously, "…how do you know?"_

_Seiriko shrugged, grinning, "…I like weapons?"_

"_Oh yeah…" Nuriko slapped his hand to his forehead._

Hotohori groaned when he heard the shout, "The birds haven't done anything to you Seiriko, so please…"

"THEY'RE ALIVE!" came the scandalized retort.

Nuriko raised an eyebrow as he watched the black haired girl attempted to grab one of the birds from her windowsill and strangle it.

"I don't think that will work" he commented, crossing his arms and leaning against her doorway with amusement etched onto his very features.

"It will…" Seiriko said through gritted teeth.

"They can fly" Nuriko pointed out.

"So can – damn it– I!"

Nuriko rolled his eyes, "Where's Kristen this morning? I figured she'd have joined in the immense insanity by now"

Seiriko shrugged, "Last I checked, she was still sleeping"

"Thank god. Only one crazy one awake" Nuriko said, mouthing to the heavens dramatically. Seiriko whacked him over the head, "Shut up…" she pouted.

Hotohori chuckled, "Well, just leave the birds alone, at least for _now_ alright?" he asked, "I'd rather not cause a scene on the first day back in town"

"…fine" Seiriko pouted, "But I'm asking Taiitsu-kun for a hunting rifle next time I see her…" she looked hopefully at the sky, as if expecting Taiitsu-kun to actually grant that certain request but was disappointed to see no hunting rifle appear. Seiriko shook her fist at the sky, "Damn you, you old witch"

Out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning hit the tree next to the window, successfully managing to fry the birds along with the tree. Seiriko was not sure whether to swear never to insult Taiitsu-kun again or to celebrate that the stupid chirping was finally gone.

She settled for waking Kristen up.

"KRISTEN!" she shouted once entering the other girl's room and jumping on her bed, which resulted in a startled yelp from the redheaded girl, "What the _fuck_ are you doing Seiriko?" Kristen glared. Then she paused…

"…there are no birds singing…." She commented slowly.

Seiriko nodded eagerly.

"…no annoying chirping…"

More nodding.

Kristen got up from the bed and immediately fell to her knees, "Oh thank you Suzaku, oh merciful god of…" she paused, "What's Suzaku the god of?" she asked.

"Suzaku is the god of the South, fire and love" Hotohori answered, amused.

" – oh merciful god of the South, fire and of love. You have blessed us by ridding this morning of that asinine and useless creature known as a bird. I will forever be grateful!" she did a dramatic bowing gesture.

"…you do know that Suzaku is a phoenix and also a bird too, right?" Hotohori asked.

Kristen looked at him, "Yeah, but he's a _real_ bird. Not those stupid little things that annoy us in the morning. I mean, at least _he's_ majestic and all that"

"…I see…" Hotohori raised an eyebrow, "Well…"

Seiriko floated up in the air, "Ah…remind me to thank Taiitsu-kun later…" she mused.

"Alright…" Kristen said questionably, "But why?"

"She turned the birds into…well, a barbecue" Seiriko grinned, pointing at the charred tree and the smoking remains of the birds that lay underneath the branches.

"oh…"

"Hotohori! Kristen! Seiriko! One of the maids randomly came back to the mansion and made breakfast for us!" Nuriko shouted, "Something about 'sensing a disturbing force in the area'"

The three of them, much to lazy to walk down the many flights of stairs in the girls' case and much too eager to test out his new abilities in Hotohori's case, floated down the stairs, causing the maid who had come up to get them to scream in terror. She fainted dead away and Seiriko poked at her, "I _think_ she's still alive…"

"You can't die of fright" Kristen said logically.

"Well…actually – "

"NO! I'm right!" Kristen said, slapping her hands over her ears to avoid listening to a possibly more logical opinion. Hotohori sighed, floating over to the dining table where Nuriko sat, "…well…we certainly won't be bored" he commented dryly.

The two girls merely grinned evilly at him and Nuriko snickered at the expression that crossed Hotohori's face.

The maid that Nuriko had been shouting about before came in, "Good morning; I hope you're enjoying your meal…"

Nuriko whispered quietly, "Didn't we fire that one?" he asked Hotohori. The golden-eyed man looked pensive and then he nodded, "Yes. We did…she talked too much"

Seiriko snickered, "You fired her for talking too much?"

"Just listen" Nuriko implored.

"…and last week, the family in the house next to the house next to the house next to the house next to me had beef for dinner…"

"What the fuck?" Kristen asked. Just as those words left her mouth, she was wrought by coughs that never seemed to stop.

"…did you choke on something?"

Kristen coughed and glared at Seiriko.

"Oh right…coughing…can't talk…"

Kristen gave one hacked and strangled sounding cough before they stopped. However, the coughs were soon the last thing on their minds as…

"Holy shit!" Seiriko exclaimed, which got the attention of the maid, who finally stopped talking about the sky.

"Oh no!" she cried out, wringing her hands, "You're coughing up blood! That's not normal! Maybe it was the food? Oh no; maybe I put in something poisonous by accident, or maybe I accidentally grabbed one of mother's – er…I mean, somebody's poisonous mixtures by accident! Aghhhhh…what to do what to do what to do" she continued to panic.

Hotohori looked at Kristen in concern, "You're not feeling anything…strange are you? No numbness, or a sudden pain somewhere in your body? No sudden lack of breathing?"

Kristen shook her head, still glancing in shock at the blood.

"Well, you weren't poisoned then"

WHACK!

The two of them looked to see that Nuriko had knocked the maid unconscious. The maid, who had managed to trample Seiriko in her panic, slumped to the ground. Seiriko got up when the idiotic woman stopped stepping on her, "Well, I'm not a certified medical professional but…you need to see a healer" she declared.

"No shit" Kristen glared, "But where are we gonna find one that knows why I'm coughing up blood?"

"…um…wait…didn't Yui mention once that there was a healer guy in the Suzaku group?"

"Yeah…"

"So we find him"

"How do you think we'll do _that_?"

"…we look for him…"

Kristen sighed, "Alright, we go around and look for him. It's the best idea we have anyways"

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It was already two days later and still, they had had absolutely no luck in finding a seishi, hopefully the one that was the healer. Hotohori had taken to making sure that Kristen got everything she needed, which was amusing for Seiriko and Nuriko to watch because as Nuriko told Seiriko, Hotohori never showed his concern this much to another person. Seiriko only grinned evilly at that and the two were then ordered to get more water from the nearby stream.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Hotohori asked in a worried tone, eyeing the five layers of blankets he had already placed on the girl's shoulder, too little if you asked him. Kristen just nodded; she could barely move under all this weight!

Both Seiriko and Nuriko wisely kept their mouths shut.

There was a gathering in town for some reason or another; deciding that perhaps it might give them a clue as to where the healer seishi was, they rode over, tall enough on their horses so they could see above the heads of all the villagers. On the wooden platform was a large man – large in terms of width – who was also very short at the same time. He was a funny looking man and one of his eyebrows looked as though it had recently been singed off and his face was red.

"Who is that guy?" Nuriko wondered aloud.

A villager – the villagers all over Konan seemed to just enjoy eavesdropping on conversations – answered him, "He's a great healer from Kutou"

"He looks like a fat midget" Kristen muttered.

"He's a renowned healer!"

Kristen's retort was cut off when yet another coughing fit started. She was dimly aware that her coughing had gotten the attention of the 'fat midget' and the midget was swaggering over towards her; it would have been very comical, especially since Kristen's horse sudden stuck out its foot and the midget tripped right on his face. He jumped up, face flaming even more, "Miss! Are you alright? Do you need to be healed?"

"I'm. Fine." Kristen coughed.

"You are obviously NOT fine!" the midget insisted, "Let me have a look at you"

"Over my dead body" she hissed. The midget smiled in a patronizing way, "I'm sure it's just the sickness talking" he walked forward, only to have a sword stuck in his face. He looked up into threatening golden eyes and gulped.

"I believe she said 'no' you miserable little cretin" Hotohori said coolly, "Perhaps you should learn to respect a lady's wishes"

"She is obviously very sick!" the midget insisted. Nuriko's eyes narrowed as he watched this exchange. Then he realized exactly who this midget was.

"And you're obviously not very human…Yao…" he said quietly. Hotohori's head whipped around instantly upon hearing the name. Yao was one of demons that a certain pirate friend had once asked them to keep an eye out for; he went around pretending to be a renowned healer and once he 'treated' them, the people who were treated were turned into mindless followers, not dead but not alive either.

Yao's head whipped around as his eyes glowed with anger, "So…you figured me out…Ryuuen and Saihitei of the – "

"Shut it" Hotohori hissed. Before he could do anything, however, Yao smirked menacingly and the body of the man suddenly slumped to the ground and standing over the body was a demon, who was still rather short with green skin, a horn grew on his forehead and a gruesome, distorted face to match. He yanked Kristen off her horse, who grimaced at the touch of the disgusting demon. Before Yao – or Kristen – could do anything, however, a warm green glow suddenly surrounded them. Yao screamed in fury and terror as his skin started to disintegrate into nothing, due to the obvious holy powers that had been shot at him, "You…will…never…" he said quickly as he disappeared, "win; there are too many of us on _his_ side"

Kristen felt strangely disappointed when the green glow faded and she was left standing in a crowd of bewildered and frightened villagers.

"Are you alright?" a deep voice asked. A man stood to the side, his hair spiked up, a headband wrapped his head. He had kind concern etched across his features.

"Fine" she said, brushing herself off. Hotohori, Nuriko and Seiriko glanced in bewilderment at what had just happened, each pondering what Yao had just said. Well…not Hotohori. He was instantly checking that Kristen was not injured at all.

"I believe you were looking for me?" the man spoke again, holding up his left hand, on which there was a character…

"Mitsukake!" all four shouted at once. Mitsukake nodded, "Yes. Now…stay still a moment" he told Kristen, while Nuriko and Hotohori briefly wondered how the healer knew they were looking for him and how he knew that Kristen was sick.

The same warm green glow surrounded her once more and Kristen was aware of feeling something irritating and heavy leave the sanctity of her lungs. She breathed in and out, pleased that she could do so without coughing up blood, "I'm cured!" she smiled happily.

Mitsukake smiled, "I believe I will join you on your journey now" he said, "My preparations have been completed"

"…you knew you were going to find us?" Seiriko asked incredulously, "Are you some kind of psychic or something?"

Mitsukake smiled secretively, not saying a word and Seiriko pouted. Nuriko laughed, "C'mon Seiriko; I'll give you a ride"

"RIDE!" came the excited shout from the raven haired girl as she was suddenly attached to Nuriko's back for a piggy back ride.

Hotohori smiled gently at Kristen, "I'm very glad you're fine now"

"Thanks" Kristen smiled back, "And…thanks for taking care of me and all that"

"You're very welcome" Hotohori said, turning intensely golden eyes on her. Kristen flung her arms around his neck in a quick hug before running off to join the insanity of Seiriko, Nuriko and now, Mitsukake. Hotohori shook his head in exasperation at the conversation taking place and resignedly joined in, touching his neck in bewilderment every so often.

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"Damn it; why are we wearing these clothes?" Jenna scowled, picking at the 'normal' clothing Hikou's friend, Kouran, had given her and Holly to wear. It was not as if she did not appreciate the gesture or anything, but how did women stand wearing these things? They were much too uncomfortable!

"Because we couldn't get Hikou to give us guy clothes" Holly muttered.

"…I don't understand why we _have_ to wear these; our clothes are just fine"

"Sure, if you want to scream out 'girls from another world right here' for everyone to know"

"We could say we're from one of those other countries"

"I think it'd probably be the same sort of style there too"

Jenna sighed, "So what are we doing in the forest now?" she wondered. They were in a secluded clearing surrounded by the rest of the dense forest and with no one in sight.

"We're probably going to be wearing these…clothes…for a while, so we may as well get used to moving around in them"

"As if that'll happen"

"And the best way to do that is to spar" Holly said, a glint in her eye.

Jenna grinned, "Ah…trying to do the impossible, are we?"

"Hey, if we can _fight_ in these clothes, we can walk in them" Holly reasoned.

"True enough"

Jenna grinned and her weapon appeared in her hand, as did Holly's; then, without a warning, they slammed their weapons right into each other with a loud and almost sickening _crunch_. The sound attracted the attention of a certain group of three males nearby, who went to see what the noise was, and what could make such a noise in this forest.

What they saw were two teenage girls, moving at lightning quick speed, weapons hitting each other, although not in a way that suggested they were trying to kill the other. They moved so quickly and so skilfully that the three males were caught off guard for a moment.

Suddenly, a glaive was pointed at them, followed by another weapon. Holly glared at the males, "What are you doing here?"

"And _please_, don't say 'we're here to try to sell you'" Jenna pleaded, "I'm sick of bashing old men's heads in"

Tasuki gulped, "No…we were heading toward the village; we're looking for two of our companions"

"…that'd better not be a lie…" Holly warned.

"Doesn't matter; Kouran can tell if they're lying or not" Jenna said, "Let's just tie them up and take them back with us"

"Alright"

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Kouran smiled with amusement at the men that the two girls had brought in; they were dressed like bandits, to be sure, which she was inclined to trust more than those dressed like high nobility, so there was a point for them.

"Now, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"We're looking for two friends of ours" Kouji explained, "They were kidnapped one night and we've been searching for them ever since"

"Oh, how horrible" Kouran could not help but comment; they were obviously not lying, judging from the determination set in the eyes of all three…and the fact that she had a sixth sense for these things.

"Perhaps your friends' kidnappers will pass by here" Hikou suggested, "You may as well stay for a while; you look as though you have not had any sleep for a while"

Tasuki glared, aware of the bags under his eyes; they didn't need to _tell_ him!

Kouji quickly clamped a hand over Tasuki's mouth, "Yeah…we'll stay"

Chiriko was already asleep.

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Please review.


	13. Of Chickens and Strangulation

Well, I'm being threatened by my friend to update this even though I would simply prefer to finish memorizing my Hamlet lines, but _noooo_ - obviously, remembering a twenty-something line part is nothing compared to updating.

If I don't remember it all, I'm going to kill her.

* * *

Waking up a few days later after the three strangers had arrived in the quiet village, Holly noticed with due curiosity that Hikou and Kouran were looking moderately more awake and definitely chirpier (in Kouran's case) than normal. Normally, nothing short of a large bucket of cold water could get Hikou up so early in the morning, so it was definitely a curious thing indeed when he _was_ awake early.

"What's going on?" she asked, yawning as she stepped into the kitchen, not caring that she was dressed in a large t-shirt and shorts; Hikou and Kouran had been shocked at the way Jenna and Holly had dressed in the beginning but now, they did not even bat an eyelash at the lack of 'proper' clothing. Although, the two still made the two girls wear dresses when going outdoors.

"Dunno" Kouji shrugged, first of the three male guests to be up as usual.

"Genrou and Doukun still asleep?"

"Doukun went down to the school to get help with his weapon from the swords master there" Kouji said, "It's a strange weapon so Genrou and I can't really teach him…and Genrou is still sleep" he paused, "Don't worry; we took care of the birds outside his window first"

Holly breathed a sigh of relief, remembering the first time in which the redheaded bandit had woken up screaming at the birds. She had never known one could use so much profanity in one sentence. Genrou, she thought decisively, must have set some sort of record for the number of cursing used in one single breath.

"So…still no luck in your search?" Holly asked. Despite Kouran and Hikou's assurance that the three males could stay as long as they needed to, Kouji and Genrou had decided that they would not accomplish much just by staying nice and comfortable in such a large home while their friends could possibly be sold or something of the sort and would leave for days at a time, scouring the nearby towns and countryside for any clues. Doukun, however, as he was still not as able to defend himself as the two bandits, stayed behind and got training from whoever was not busy in town.

"Not yet" Kouji admitted, "Not even a clue of some sort"

Hikou suddenly walked – well, waltzed was more like it – into the kitchen, humming under his breath and smiling widely as though the best thing on earth had happened, "Good morning!" he said cheerfully.

Kouji and Holly blinked and stared at the blue-haired man.

"What?" Hikou asked, taken back at the stares.

"Why're you so happy this early in the morning?" Kouji asked, sounding as though a miracle of some sort had happened, "You're usually such a grouch"

"I am _not_!" Hikou huffed indignantly.

Holly coughed not very discreetly and Hikou shot a mock glare at her.

"Just last week, you threw Jenna out of the kitchen because she wasn't getting out of the way fast enough for you to get to your precious tea" Holly pointed out; tea, in this world, was the less addictive and not as strong, version of coffee, "She's still planning to kill you for that"

Hikou made a noise similar to an 'eep' as he thought about the many ways the blue haired girl could find to kill him.

As if knowing – just knowing – that she was being talked about, Jenna stumbled into the room, looking as though she had gotten only two hours of sleep instead of seven, which Holly to be honest was proud of: Jenna had finally gotten over her insomniac stage!

As though she sensed what Holly was thinking, Jenna levelled a glare at her friend, along with sticking out her tongue, which of course, was the most mature thing to do at the moment but seeing as half of the other people in the room were just as immature, nobody really bothered to comment, especially not Kouji, who after spending two straight days with only Genrou for company, found that the sticking out of the tongue_ was_ mature – compared to Genrou, that is.

"I didn't say anything!" Holly insisted, wondering if it was possible that her friend could read her mind.

Jenna rolled her eyes and in a manner reminiscent of Hikou, headed straight for the tea and gulped down two cups before turning back to the rest of the group, "So, besides talking about how I'm gonna kill Hikou, what else were you talking about?" she asked, earning her strange looks for knowing what they had been talking about before she came in; even if she had been right outside, the door was thick enough so that their words would have been too muffled to understand in the first place.

"Why Hikou's so happy this morning" Holly said after a moment of awkward silence.

"Because Houjun's coming back today!" Hikou announced, referring to the last of the group of three friends who lived in this house.

"Really?" Jenna perked up in interest at meeting the friend who was so often talked about.

"Yeah; he was just in the capital for a while, but he said he'd be back by tonight" Hikou nodded, "Kouran's getting a bit dinner fixed up"

"Who's Houjun?" Kouji asked.

"He's Kouran's fiancée" Hikou grinned. Kouji's eyebrows rose, "Heh…no wonder Kouran's so happy today"

"Well, at any rate; I can't wait to meet him" Holly nodded, just as a shout came from Genrou's room, albeit a bit muffled, screaming about chickens and strangulation.

* * *

At the moment, Kristen felt like strangling something. It was not, of course, due to the fact that everyone else had managed to drift off into a peaceful sleep (surprisingly, the guys were not snoring, which surprised her still because it was a known fact in the modern world that _all_ guys over the age of fourteen snore). Everyone except her and it was not of course that she was sleeping on a large pile of blankets on the cold forest ground but instead, why she felt like strangling something was because she now had a mission, to murder all the birds on earth, most specifically, the owl that _wouldn't stop fucking hooting!_ She glared daggers at the bird, who merely hooted again, oblivious to her hateful stare.

_Hoot_

Kristen glared a death glare so deadly that if looks were able to kill, the owl would have exploded in to ten thousand little pieces fifty times already. Unfortunately, however, looks could not kill, which meant that the offending owl was still alive, to Kristen's utter dismay and disappointment.

_Hoot!_

That was it! Kristen stood, seething, promise of death prominent in her eyes. That owl was going to die!

She cast a suspicious look at the bundle of blankets that was Seiriko just to make sure the black haired girl would not be given _more_ blackmail material, and quickly walked toward the tree where the owl was perched. The owl began to realize the danger it was in as Kristen managed to get from the ground to the branch under the owl in one leap – less gravity in this world, she supposed. It gave one more hoot and flew off, hoping to escape into the night.

However, it had sorely underestimated the fury of Kristen and gave a startled noise that was a cross between a hoot and a squawk of some sort when its leg was pulled so roughly that it went spiralling down toward the earth.

Kristen's eyes glittered both maniacally and maliciously as she looked upon her successfully caught prey. The owl, as smart as it was, had the sense to gulp – or at least the bird version of gulping.

Rose coloured eyes watched this scene with amusement, wondering whether or not to tell Seiriko that her friend spent her nights chasing and punishing owls.

* * *

Houjun hummed to himself as his horse neared the town at a steady pace, quite eager to be back in such familiar surroundings and he would hopefully get a good night's sleep. That is, if Hikou had not gotten another of his ideas into his head involving getting drunk out of their minds which usually resulted in a _very_ bad headache the next morning.

As he saw the distinct candlelight that lit up the homes in town, he felt a sudden prickling on the back of his neck and he quickly swivelled around, his sheathed sword making a loud _clank_ when it made contact with the weapon of whoever was attacking him. Gritting his teeth, he put more force into his sheath and pushed, sending his attacker to stumble backwards. He heard a grunt and in the light of the lantern he had with him, he saw the dark clothed figure who clutched a short sword in hand.

"Very nice; I see you haven't lost your touch"

"Who are you?" Houjun asked stonily, "And why did you attack me?"

"I've come for you of course" the man answered.

"Really…I'm sorry but I don't plan to be abducted anytime soon" Houjun retorted, knowing how many people had tried to do so already but failed.

"Who said anything about abducting you?"

Houjun was taken back and confused. So why was this man attacking him?

"I'm here to kill you"

"What?" Houjun could not help but feel shock at those words. However, he quickly recovered and glared at the man, "What makes you think I'll let you do that?"

"You don't have a choice" the man sneered, brandishing his short sword and charging at him. Barely dodging that hit, Houjun ducked to the ground, realizing that this man would not be an easy opponent to beat.

_Clack_! The swords struck at one another once again and both men leapt back, circling each other in a predatory fashion, looking for some sort of weakness before instinct overcame logic and patience, and both attacked one another, resulting in another draw…that was, until the man slashed at Houjun's side just as Houjun was moving away. Houjun winced at the pain that came with the wound.

* * *

Hotohori exchanged an amused look with Nuriko, who was looking as though he was not sure whether to laugh or to simply run away from the obviously insane girls. Of course, he had chosen to laugh after a few moments, for the two girls had started to play cards, resulting in one or the either losing and all of a sudden, the parchment that that had been cut into such odd shapes was everywhere and the two girls were grabbing the cards nearest to them and throwing it at each other.

"Well…" Nuriko trailed off, "They're not bored anymore at least"

"True" Hotohori said, his eyes gazing in exasperation at the two of them. Mitsukake had gone to the nearby stream to fill up the water canteens and in Hotohori's opinion, he was quite lucky to miss this spectacle. Seiriko, suddenly aware of the strange looks they were getting, grinned sheepishly.

"Are you done?" Nuriko asked, eyes twinkling at the black haired girl, which Hotohori discreetly made a note of.

"Uh….nope!" Seiriko said, throwing the last card at Kristen and immediately stood up, "Now I'm done!" she stated, dodging the card that went flying her way.

The violet haired man shook his head, "You are impossible" he said teasingly, which only caused Seiriko to pout and turn large, red, puppy-dog eyes on him. Hotohori chuckled as his friend's usual iron will suddenly start to crumble.

"That's…not fair" Nuriko said through gritted teeth. He would not give in. He would not give in. He would not – oh, to Hell with it!

Hotohori laughed silently once more when he saw that Nuriko had finally given in.

"How long did _that_ one take?" Kristen asked from beside him, startling the amber eyed man. He had not even noticed her beside him.

"Ten seconds" he reported.

"Another record" Kristen mused, "Last time, it took thirteen"

Mitsukake came back just in time to see Seiriko being given a piggyback ride from Nuriko and he sweatdropped.

* * *

It had happened too fast for him to realize what was going on; one moment he had been trying to ignore the pain and the next, he found himself on the ground, the man sitting painfully on his back and his head being yanked up painfully.

"You know what…something seems amiss…" the man muttered and Houjun found he did not like the tone of voice at all, "Oh, I know what's missing!"

And with that, he took his knife and dragged it across Houjun's face in a deep wound that crossed from above his eye to across his cheek. It was pure torture and it did not end there; the man would almost randomly twist the knife a bit, as if making some sort of pattern and Houjun had to bite his cheek to keep from screaming in pure pain.

"There…" the man smirked as blood dripped into Houjun's vision, "Now…to finish you off…Chichiri"

Houjun, however, was too much in fear of his life than to listen to what the man was saying. He felt anger and desperation rush into him at once, a rather strange and powerful combination, for as soon as he felt the emotions stir, unbeknownst to him, a rune glowed on his knee.

However, he noticed the red glow that erupted in an explosion around him and he stared aghast as the man leapt away – or at least tried to. Before he could complete escape the crimson glow, it had surrounded the man. He screamed as his skin smoked all over; not even an inch of him was spared and he landed on the ground rather painfully, although it was obvious from his twitching hand that he was still alive.

Houjun then saw the still glowing rune and he stared incredulously at it, as if wondering why it was there. While he did this, the man had taken the opportunity to stand up and hoping to complete his mission, the man charged at Houjun – Chichiri – with a furious roar.

His attempts were foiled by a shout of, "REKKA SHINEN!" that came from the direction of town a jet of flame flew straight at the man…along with another from the opposite direction. Tasuki blinked at the flame; it was too familiar…

"Hey, look Kristen! It's Fang boy!" came another familiar shout.

Tasuki was not sure exactly whether to be joyful that he had found the two he had been looking for or whether to listen to the feeling of dread that told him to run far, far away as soon as he got the opportunity to do so.

Kouran was stunned when Genrou and a group of people she had never met before walked into the kitchen, most of them covered in blood, although it was obviously not their own. It definitely came from the man who was bleeding on her kitchen –

"HOUJUN!" she screamed, recognizing the bloody form of her fiancée.

"Hey…Kouran…" Houjun said weakly, trying to stand, but failing to; the wound in his side had been much worse than he originally thought.

"Do you happen to have a room where we could put him?" the large man with spiky black hair asked politely. Kouran nodded, her eyes never leaving Houjun's bloodied face. Once in Houjun's room, she sat in a chair next to the bed as the healer who introduced himself as Juan started working. It was miraculously quick how he cleaned the wounds and he then simply held up his hand and with a burst of green light, her fiancée's wounds were healed, although she noticed that there was a faint trace of a scar where the wound on his face had been.

"Let him rest" Juan instructed before leaving the room and heading downstairs, where he was met with a strange sight.

Four girls were staring at each other incredulously and in obvious disbelief, their eyes wide and looking almost pale – well, in Kristen's case, there was no difference, but for the others…

Then…

_Poke…_

"You _are_ real!" Seiriko exclaimed happily.

Holly scowled as she rubbed her arm, "Do I _look_ like an illusion?"

Jenna, who had been about to poke Kristen, withdrew her finger discreetly, "…so you're the ones Taiitsu-kun told us about"

Kristen nodded, still a bit in shock at seeing two of her friends in this strange world also, as indicated by her still wide eyes.

Suddenly, they all broke out into talk, the previous silence forgotten as if it had never existed and the four happily conversed with one another, resulting in a few hugs here and there. The seishi, Hikou and Kouji decided that now was perhaps a good time to sit down and have a few bottles of sake.

"So, any idea who did that to Chichiri?" Hotohori asked, referring to Houjun.

"No idea" Tasuki shrugged, "Hikou?"

"Well…I would have said one of the aristocrats since it's been attempted before, but they have never succeeded to lay a finger on him"

"Why would they attack him?" Chiriko asked, confused.

"Houjun's father was one of the leaders of the ones that opposed the aristocrats but he eventually died in battle and our hometown was burned to the ground as a result of him being found out. Miraculously though, we survived, but now that I think about it, there was a red glow that night but I had always passed it off as a hallucination from too much smoke" he mused, "But the aristocrats are convinced that Houjun is even more of a threat than his father for surviving the massacre and has always come after him"

"Why not you then?" Chiriko asked, still confused but this time about why they would go after Chichiri alone.

Hikou shrugged, "Maybe because he was the son of Daisui? We never bothered to find out"

"Perhaps…Liu has been up to something once again" Nuriko said pensively.

Hotohori smirked, "Then we should sic Kristen and Seiriko on him shouldn't we?" he said, remembering the way he had seen Liu run screaming from the base thanks to the work of the two obviously insane girls.

"We _should_…" Nuriko's eyes brightened.

All conversation after that, however, was lost when the men got completely drunk and were not able to string even three words together.

"Now _that's_ what I call drunk" Holly poked at Hikou with a chopstick. Hikou twitched but otherwise stayed unconscious.

* * *

Yeah...that's it...


	14. Tamahome

Right...I just realized that I haven't bothered updating in over two months and figured whoever left that's reading this might as well read what else I wrote - and the fact that my friend's glaring at me and is possibly going to kill me if I 'don't start being nice to the people who wait for updates'. I honestly think no one's reading this anymore, but whatever - if anyone actually happens to actually still be reading...well, lucky day for you then. Enjoy.

* * *

The first thing Houjun knew when he opened his eyes in the morning was that his head hurt and the sun was a very ruthless, merciless and soon to be _dead_ enemy which he would take much pleasure in destroying later that day, after beating Hikou over the head with the closest blunt object that is. He could not believe that he had _once again_ been talked into getting drunk out of his mind; he should have stayed in bed after being healed by Mitsukake, but _no_, he just _had_ to listen to Hikou. To further his ire, if that was possible, he saw Hotohori somewhere to his right looking rather amused and _pain-free_ as he poked Nuriko in the shoulder in an attempt to wake him up. Nuriko gave a sound similar to 'hn' and shrugged off Hotohori's pokes, which steadily got fiercer as his best friend refused to wake up. Houjun gave one last groan and glare at the volatile sun before sinking his head back into whatever he had passed out on the night before and slept. 

That was the situation that Seiriko found the men in ten minutes later, Chiriko by her side as he rolled his eyes at the passed out men. She raised an eyebrow at Hotohori, who simply shrugged in return, "Everyone else was asleep so I got bored" he pouted. Seiriko wondered if perhaps she should take a picture to show to Kristen later just to watch her mutter 'sexy' under her breath many, many times. Just for the fun of it.

"How long exactly have you been poking him?" Chiriko asked curiously from behind Seiriko, struggling under the heavy pile of books he had to return to Hikou's scholar friend later on.

Hotohori gave a long suffering sigh, "Fifteen whole minutes"

"Right…my turn" Seiriko grinned, deciding to make this a game to see who could wake the purple haired seishi up first, "First one to wake him up wins. Loser has to wake Kristen up"

Hotohori raised an eyebrow at that, "Why should that be considered a menial task?" he wondered.

Seiriko shrugged, "Some owl kept her up at night. All I heard was her ranting death threats at the tree outside our window"

Then, without waiting for an answer, she sat on the other side of Nuriko, right on Tasuki's back (but of course, she really did not care; after all, if horses got the privilege of sitting on him after beating him up, why couldn't she?) and stared at him for a few moments.

And stared.

And stared.

Stare.

Then, she reached over and poked him quite hard on the forehead. Nuriko gave a 'hn' sound and rolled over, sheltering his forehead with the safety of his pillow. Seiriko frowned and poked again, this time in his ribs, at which he rolled over once more. Seiriko pouted, wanting the seishi to wake up to give her more piggy back rides. As if sensing what she was thinking, Nuriko suddenly mumbled, "No…more rides…"

Hotohori's eyebrows shot up with amusement as Seiriko pouted even more. She got off Tasuki's back (the bandit had not even noticed the extra weight) and placed her elbows on the ground in front of the purple haired seishi, her head resting in her hands, "But I want a ride Nuriko" the whine coupled with the rather convincing childish and innocent tone made it rather hard to ignore, for Nuriko twitched and Chiriko's jaw dropped, the words '_I have to learn to do that!'_ racing through his mind.

"Hn…no Sei…"

From across the room, Kouji who was awake during this whole thing, could only watch as the determination in Seiriko's eyes grew all the while the puppy-dog look in her eyes practically exuded cuteness, "But Nuriko…I want a ride"

The violet haired man's eyes opened tiredly, wondering why he felt like he had to open his eyes or face the consequences. He groaned, wondering what had caused him to pass out in the kitchen of all places, cursing the sun. His eyes slowly adjusted to the light and then, he saw…

"Ride?"

Hotohori laughed loudly when Nuriko suddenly shot up from the floor, lifting Seiriko onto his shoulder at the same time, saying, "Up you go!" Seiriko laughed happily, enjoying this early morning ride very much. Chiriko shook his head in disbelief, "I _really_ need to learn that" he muttered, "_That_ is manipulation at its finest"

Kouji chuckled, "Somehow, Doukun, I don't think you really need to learn" He distinctly remembered one time when Doukun had looked up at Aidou with those great big green eyes after tripping on the ground, his eyes watering and then Aidou had then pushed Genrou out of the way rather quickly, resulting in Genrou crashing into a wall, to get to Doukun. He now knew that puppy-dog eyes could take you very far. Yes…very far.

Meanwhile, Hotohori went to complete his end of the bargain and traipsed up the stairs to find himself in a hallway filled with many doors and he suddenly remembered that he did not know which one was the room that Kristen was given. Well, he reasoned, judging from what Seiriko said, she had been in the same room as Seiriko. Now, if only he knew which one…

Suddenly, one of the door opened and Hotohori jumped back quickly to keep his face from getting a bruise. One of the other girls stumbled out, the one with the brown curls, he saw and she looked up curiously at him, "Did you need something?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Yes, actually; could you perhaps tell me where Kristen's room is? I'm supposed to wake her up" he said politely as always.

Holly blinked then nodded, "This isn't perhaps some half-brained scheme of Seiriko's is it?" she asked.

"Well…she did win that game we had going downstairs" Hotohori mused, "So…yes?"

Holly suppressed a laugh, wondering if she should do Seiriko a favour and videotape this promising to be interesting moment. Deciding that Kristen would most definitely murder her for doing so, Holly continued her trek downstairs after directing Hotohori to the right room. Once downstairs, she found Seiriko sitting happily on the violet haired strong man's shoulders. Doukun – or Chiriko as she was told last night – was sitting in the corner, muttering and adopting very adorable puppy-dog eyes every few minutes.

"What are you doing?" she asked him curiously.

"I'm trying to learn manipulation" Chiriko answered.

"By…using puppy-dog eyes?"

"YES!" Chiriko shouted loudly, "If Seiriko can do it, so can _I_!"

Holly sent Kouji a questioning look. Kouji chuckled for a good five minutes before he answered, "How do you think Seiriko got Nuriko to give her a ride?"

Meanwhile, upstairs, Hotohori had entered Kristen's room and was amused to see the window pane had splintered, giving him the conclusion that Kristen had most likely slammed it after dealing with the owls last night. Kristen turned in her sleep, unaware that Hotohori had just entered her room.

"Kristen" Hotohori shook her.

She simply turned again and kept sleeping.

Hotohori sighed.

"Kristen!" he shook her again. Just when Hotohori thought that he would have the same trouble getting her up as he normally did with Nuriko, she opened her eyes and stared at him for a long time, the sleep being blinked out of her eyes rather rapidly.

Kristen had been having a nice dream, of weapons and explosives, and not to mention, destroying Miaka, before her dream got disrupted by someone waking her up. She was quite disgruntled when her image of Miaka dying in a rather painful way got interrupted and she was forced to open her eyes. That was…until she saw who had woken her up that wonderful, beautiful morning.

"Hotohori!" Kristen blinked many times. She sat up quickly, all sleepiness startled out of her system by being awoken by Hotohori, "What are you doing here?"

"…waking you up" Hotohori answered as if the answer was obvious. Which it was, actually. Then he chuckled, "I hear you had quite a hard time with the owls last night"

Kristen flushed, "Well, they were _loud_!" she exclaimed, "And annoying…"

Hotohori chuckled, "I get the point…now, would you perhaps like to get up? Kouran's making breakfast downstairs"

"Nope!" Kristen dove back under the covers, "Too lazy"

"Kristen…"

"Not moving!"

"Please?" Hotohori asked. Kristen merely gave him a mischievous look and yawned loudly. Hotohori sighed. _Now_ he knew why Seiriko did not enjoy waking the redhead up. Well, fortunately, Hotohori was beginning to come up with an idea…

"Hotohori!!!!!" Kristen shouted in protest when she was suddenly hoisted up and slung over Hotohori's shoulder as he grinned mischievously at her, a satisfied gleam in his eye. She continued to protest as he carried her that way down to breakfast. Kristen glared pointedly at Tasuki when he opened his mouth to make a comment, but the bandit smartly kept his mouth shut.

Holly looked back and forth between Nuriko, who was still happily running around with Seiriko on his shoulders, to the victoriously smirking Hotohori, who had Kristen slung across his shoulder, although the redhead girl was slowly managing to get into the more comfortable position on Hotohori's back in the form of a piggy back ride.

"Why is it that I turn around for five seconds and suddenly Seiriko and Kristen get to be carried around by sexually appealing men?!" she pouted. Absolute silence followed that comment and Holly coughed, "I'll shut up now"

Deciding that it was probably best to ignore that comment, Hotohori turned to Kristen, who now had her arms wrapped loosely around his neck as he hoisted her up in a piggy back style, "Comfortable back there?"

"Yes actually" Kristen grinned, "Now, care to explain why you found it necessary to kidnap me from my comfy bed?"

"You said you weren't going to move. So I moved you" Hotohori said innocently.

Jenna wandered in just then, not noticing anything really for she was still half asleep. After gulping down her usual intake of morning tea, she blinked and did a double take, "I wasn't aware that it was Piggyback Ride Day today"

"It's not" Holly told her, "Seiriko's just a child, and Kristen's lazy"

Jenna looked deep in thought, "If I become a lazy child, will I get one too?"

"What?"

"A piggy back ride of course" she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Which it was, really.

"From who? As far as I know, only Nuriko and Hotohori give out piggy back rides, and they're…occupied" Kouji grinned at the blue haired girl. Jenna sighed, looking disappointed, "I have to go take Doukun to return those books anyways"

"Thank you!" Chiriko said from behind the pile of large books. Tasuki rolled his eyes, looking at his brother, "I think you'll need more than two people to carry those"

"Why Tasuki, are _you_, the almight Genrou, offering _help_?" Jenna asked, adopting an astonished expression. Tasuki scowled, "Yes!"

"Thanks, Shun'u!" Chiriko piped up as the weight was reduced by a lot.

"I don't know how you could possibly read this much" Tasuki muttered under his breath, "It's not possible"

"Oh, I think you'll find it's extremely possible" Chiriko said, grinning at his brother, "All you have to do is pick up a book. I'm sure you know how to do _that_, Shun'u?"

"Shaddup, brat" Tasuki said, although he did not sound very angry. Jenna put her hand over her mouth to keep the sudden burst of laughter from escaping.

"And you" Tasuki whirled around, "Don't encourage him"

"Me?" Jenna asked innocently, "I would _never_!"

Upon reaching the scholar's home, which was more like a gigantic library, Chiriko knocked on the door and told them that he would be staying for a while. So, shrugging, the two teenagers set the books on the ground near him as Chiriko waited for the door to open and set off back to the house.

"Crazy kid" Tasuki shook his head.

"He's not – well…maybe he's a bit too interested in books…"

"You're crazy too" Tasuki stated.

"How so?"

"Why the hell would you want a piggy back ride anyways? Looks uncomfortable if you ask me"

"It looks fun to me" Jenna shrugged. Tasuki stared at her strangely for a few moments, "You really want one?"

"Sure; maybe I can persuade Kouji to give me one when I get back" Jenna mused.

"Nah; Kouji hates carrying people" Tasuki shook his head. Then he sighed, "Get on"

"What?"

Flushing slightly from her incredulous stare, Tasuki instinctively snapped, "You want a ride or not? Just get on damn it!"

Jenna grinned and leapt onto the bandit's back, "Thanks!"

"Yeah, yeah; just don't rub it in later" Tasuki muttered.

When the two entered the house with Jenna still on Tasuki's back, Holly looked up curiously and rolled her eyes, "Looks like you got one"

"Yep!" Jenna smiled happily.

"You're so childish"

"And you're not?"

"NO!"

Jenna grinned as she got off Tasuki's back, "Thanks for the ride Genrou"

"Yeah, yeah…" Tasuki muttered, looking a bit embarrassed, especially since Kouji had started sending him strange looks that suggested that the blue haired bandit had thought that Tasuki had gotten a personality transplant of some sort.

"What happened?" Jenna suddenly found the need to ask when she saw Nuriko's head resting on Seiriko's lap and Seiriko looking sheepish.

"He…got too tired?" Seiriko said.

"Yet you know, he'll probably end up giving her another ride once she uses _those_ eyes again" Hotohori muttered to Kristen, who nodded and began wondering if Hotohori would give her a ride if she used those eyes…

* * *

Two days later, the group had gotten their preparations ready and were setting off from the quiet little town (much to the disappointment of Chiriko) to look for the last Suzaku seishi: Tamahome. It was supposed to a short and quiet journey to the next village over, which took approximately two hours to get there by foot. However, as everyone had learned by now, nothing was ever quiet when a part of this strange group. 

They had started off the morning quietly at least, Chichiri thought morosely as he watched the rest of the group make bets on what the last Suzaku seishi would be like.

"I bet he's some kind of cheap bastard"

"No, no; that was the _last_ one. Surely, Suzaku wouldn't make the same mistake again"

"You never know…"

"Well, he's a god; he won't make the same mistake _twice_"

"He made it once didn't he?"

"True…but…"

Before the conversation could continue anymore, Chiriko thought it was wise to hand out drinks. Drinks spiked with some sleeping herbs compliment of Mitsukake of course. Chichiri sighed gratefully as silence reigned upon the group for the next hour, with only Chiriko and Mitsukake talking quietly somewhere behind him. He kept a watch out for possible enemies that might appear, knowing it was necessary with the many attacks already issued against them. True, most of them were kidnapping, but then there was that demon Yao that Mitsukake had killed. Demons were more of a problem than humans simply because they could attack from anywhere.

The hour went by quickly and soon, the drugged members of their group began to wake up, grumbling about being put to sleep and missing many chances at causing chaos. Chichiri sighed, "Wasn't there a stronger herb?" he asked Mitsukake.

"No; unless you want me to put them in a coma, which would not help"

"I guess not" Chichiri sighed.

He was interrupted from saying more when two horrified screams pierced the air behind them. Two familiar heads of red and black came charging at them, not caring if anyone was in their way. Seiriko had a horrified look in her eyes as she grabbed onto her horse's neck. Kristen screamed at her horse to go faster, "Run, you stupid creature, RUN!"

Seiriko shouted at her horse, "If I see you even _trying_ to get tired, I will personally kill you later – when we get to safety" They rushed past, screaming, "GET AWAY!"

Nuriko blinked, "What's wrong with them?"

Tasuki, however, knew what was going on, as did Kouji. The two got horrified expressions on their faces and Tasuki even began making a dealing of cooperation with his horse for the time being. Kouji turned to the others, "If you value your lives, GET GOING!"

That said from the normally calm bandit got the rest of them urging their horses to gallop as fast as they possibly could, following the four bandits' example. Holly made the mistake of looking behind them and she screamed in terror, "What _is_ that thing?!!!"

For behind them, yelling for them to stop, and rolling along the way, all the while crushing nearby trees at the same time was the most disgusting thing any of them had ever seen. Not including It of course, but most of them had never seen It, so this was the most disgusting thing they had ever seen.

"We have to get away!" Jenna called out.

"Don't you think we _know_?!" Kristen shouted back. Suddenly, her horse's legs buckled and Kristen muttered a, "Crap" as she was thrown off. Luckily, Hotohori grabbed her as he passed by, placing her firmly on his own horse, "So what is that?"

"It's Miaka" Kristen explained, "She was the former priestess of Suzaku"

"_That_?" Hotohori asked in absolute disgust.

"We're doomed…" Seiriko muttered, "It's the end of the world as we know it…"

Seiriko floated up high as her horse collapsed on the ground and to her absolute horror, she had the misfortune to look at a nearby tree and was completely shocked to see Taka up in the tree, waving at her. She shuddered, "KRISTEN! I FOUND A WAY TO STOP THE FAT - er…well, she's too fat to be a whore...!"

"HOW!?"

"I FOUND THE CHEAP BASTARD!"

"I THOUGHT HE WAS SACRIFICED?!"

"APPARENTLY NOT!"

"WELL, DO IT NOW!"

Seiriko floated to where Taka was, smirking evilly, "Hello Taka"

"Oh, you, you're here! Help; my wife is out of control!"

"We know" Seiriko remarked dryly, "How can we not when she's trampling everything behind us?"

"Help me! I don't want to get trampled! I have too much money: a whole penny!"

"…don't worry. You'll be perfectly safe" Seiriko said innocently. That was, before she grabbed Taka by his collar and threw the man in the direct path of Miaka. The former priestess squealed happily, "TAKA!"

"Aww, looks like you didn't need my help" a voice said from behind Jenna, causing her to jump as she faced a man with dark green hair and brown eyes, who was wearing – a shade of pink she never knew existed. Oh lord, her eyes…

"Who are _you_?"

"I'm Tamahome of course" the man said, his symbol flaring to life.

"I…see…well…" Kristen was at a loss of words, trying not to look at the bright clothes of the man.

Taka had joined them, somehow escaping from Miaka's grasp. Kristen glared at him. However, Tamahome was quite happy to see the man, "Why hello!"

"…hello?"

"Hmmm…that's your wife is it?"

"Yes…"

"Well, seeing as your wife is a fat cow, perhaps you'd like to come with me to my – "

"NO!"

"I'm sure you'll change your mind soon enough" Tamahome smiled seductively. Seiriko's eyes were wide as she watched this, "I'm not sure, but I think Tamahome is hitting on Taka…"

"He is…" Kristen said, nodding, "He is…"

"I'm scarred…" Seiriko muttered.

"I think we should turn around and walk away as though nothing happened"

"Agreed"

As the group, as one, walked off quietly – very quietly, due to the fact that they were all quite disturbed – they heard an enraged Tamahome scream, "HANDS OFF YOU FAT COW!"

* * *

Yeah...Tamahome's basically a comic relief character in all this. I made him as different from Taka / old Tamahome as I possibly could...and this was a result. Actually, at first he was supposed to be a girl who worked in what would be considered the red light district of a city in Konan, but...this seemed funnier... 


End file.
